XXXIV. INTEROCEANIC COMMUNICATION (part 3 of 3)

XXXIV. INTEROCEANIC COMMUNICATION (part 3 of 3)

[XXXIII-5] Guatemala: chief articles of export, cochineal, coffee, cotton, wool, sugar, India-rubber, hides, and indigo; also rice, mules, cacao, pork, horns, timber, sarsaparilla, vanilla, tobacco, etc. Cochineal at one time was a great staple, the export being nearly 68,000 centals in 1860-4, and about 59,000 centals in 1870-4; reduced to about 2,845 in 1879-83. The principal importations were comestibles, wines and liquors, cotton, linen, woollen, and silk fabrics, clothing, hats, fancy goods, furniture, arms, articles for agric., arts, and sciences. Arms, lead, and gunpowder might not be imported without special permission of the govt. Some articles were exempt from duty, such as material for ship-building, instruments for medicine, surgery, science, schools, arts, implements of agric., machinery, and tools for manuf., steam-engines, money, gold, silver, guano, mineral, coal, etc. Articles of luxury paid an import duty; foreign manufactures entered with a high duty. Small amounts should be paid at the time of entry in cash; and larger sums, part at the adjustment of the duties, and the rest in instalments of from one to three months. The republic has several ports open to foreign commerce on both oceans; namely, Santo Tomás, Livingston, and Golfo Dulce, which is navigable only for vessels of light draught, on the Atlantic, and San José, San Luis, Champerico, and Ocós on the Pacific. Iztapam or Independencia was closed in 1853, and the custom-house removed to the roadstead of San José, which is sheltered by a bold breakwater. Actual value of foreign trade: imports, 1851-7, $7,672,682; 1860-4, $6,268,227; 1871-5, $12,304,289; 1876-80, $15,054,152. The average of importations in the five years 1880-4 was $2,700,000. The largest importations in 1883 were from G. Britain, including Belize, $884,205; U. S., $529,458; France, $149,687; Germany, $128,296; Switzerland, $76,278; Spain, $65,470; China, $54,855. The rest from Belgium, Cent. Am., Italy, Colombia, and Denmark. The war between Guat. and Salv., and revolution in Pan., paralyzed trade in 1885. It is noticed that notwithstanding the greater proximity and wealth of the U. S., Guatemala's commercial relations are greater with England. Exports: 1851-7, $9,613,099; 1860-4, $7,386,541; 1870-4, $12,418,083; 1879-83, $22,552,867. Coffee loomed up from none in 1860-4, 695,671 centals in 1870-4, to 1,519,494 centals in 1879-83. Sugar was also a prominent staple, followed by India-rubber. The number of merchant vessels which visited Guat. ports on the Pac. during 1883 were 7 steamers of the Pac. Mail S. Co., which made their periodical trips; 3 stmrs. of the Kosmos (German) line, to which special privileges were granted by the Guat. govt, in 1882. Sailing vessels, 6 Am., 1 Eng., 6 French, 3 German, and 1 Salvadoran. To Livingston, on the Atlantic, came monthly 4 Am. and one Eng. steamer. Seven vessels did coasting trade under the Eng. flag. Vessels arrived in 1884, 171 with 173,982 tons; departed 168 with 173,758 tons, carrying away 109,402 packages of merchandise and products of the country.

Honduras: exports consisted of bullion, mahogany, and other woods, hides, sarsaparilla, tobacco, cattle, and indigo; the imports, of cottons, silk, hardware, etc. The chief ports are Omoa and Trujillo on the Atlantic, and Amapala on the Pacific. Values of imports: 1856, $750,000, chiefly from Great Britain; 1867, $750,000; 1873, $1,000,000; 1877, $640,000; 1880, $750,000; 1882-3, $2,885,000; 1886, from $2,000,000 to $2,500,000. The tariff was low. Exports: 1856, $825,000; 1867, $825,000; 1872-3, $2,370,000; 1876, $1,234,983; 1877, $595,000; 1880, $650,000; 1882-3, $3,415,000; 1886, $2,000,000 to $2,500,000. British Hond. or Belize: imports: 1873, $1,183,074; 1878-81, $1,923,000, nearly two thirds from G. Britain, and the rest from the U. S. Exports: $1,251,000, about two thirds to G. Britain, and the rest to the U. S. The principal exports to the latter country were woods, raw sugar, fruits, nuts, coffee, drugs and dyes, rubber, hides, etc.

Salvador: articles of export, indigo, coffee, sugar, tobacco, caoutchouc, rebozos, balsam, hides, and cotton. Imports: comestibles, wines and liquors, cotton, linen, woollen, and silk fabrics, hardware, etc. The ports of entry were La Union, La Libertad, and Acajutla. Imported goods pay duties according to the tariff, which were mostly specific, but many articles paid, besides, 20 per cent ad valorem. Products of the other Central American states on being imported, reciprocity existing, paid only 4 per cent ad val. Articles intended for the development of industries and education were exempt. The importation of arms, without special leave of the government, alcohol and common rum, cognac, gin, absinthe, aniseseed, coriander, sassafras, saltpetre, and obscene images was forbidden. Products of the country were free from export dues, except indigo, ores, gold and silver bullion, and jewelry. Import values: 1855-61, $6,816,879; 1864, $1,233,711; 1866-8, $5,799,912; 1871-4, $12,869,514; 1877, $2,186,000; 1880-3, $5,750,000. Exports: the greater part to Great Britain, the U. S. occupying the second place: 1855-61, $8,831,990; 1864-8, $13,931,675, cotton counting somewhat among the exports during the war in the U. S.; but after its termination this staple ceased to figure; 1871-8, $29,206,953; 1880-3, $8,708,000.

Nicaragua: principal markets, U. S., Eng., France, and Cent. Am.; chief exports, coffee, India-rubber, cattle, hides, and gold; also cabinet and dye woods, indigo, sugar, rum, cacao, dairy products, gums, pearl and tortoise shells, etc. Ports San Juan del Norte, San Juan del Sur, and Realejo or Corinto. The first named was declared a free port in 1860. Import values: 1861-73, $3,355,600, exclusive of coin, and not including the years 1870-2. Nic., Gaceta, Feb. 21, 1874. Lévy, a good authority, gives the imports for 1865-71 at $6,275,324, adding that in the first two years the balance of trade was against Nic. to the amount of $453,429; 1873-6, $4,313,876; 1877-80, $5,117,661; 1881-4, $7,157,525; these figures include about half a million dollars in coin. Wholesale merchants sold at long terms, often 18 months; most of the buyers disposed of the goods at once, with 20 per ct loss, but for cash, and during 17 months' use of the capital making as much as 50 per ct profit, which enabled them to pay for the merchandise originally bought. Exports: 1861-73, $4,153,677, without including for 1871-2. Lévy has for 1865-71, $6,789,841; 1873-6, $5,694,009; 1877-80, $6,303,589; 1881-4, $8,926,965. In view of the fall in the price of coffee in late years in foreign markets, and of the decrease in the production of rubber, there was cause to fear that the day was not distant when the balance of trade would be against Nic., unless with the facilities afforded by the railroads the exportations of timber and dye-woods should be greatly developed, as expected. The exports of cattle to the other states of Cent. Am. have become quite considerable. The two chief centres of internal trade were Granada and Leon, which supplied their own departments. Chontales was supplied from the former, Segovia from the latter, Matagalpa from both. Rivas and Chinandega imported a portion of their supplies, buying the rest respectively at Granada and Leon. Rivas furnished cacao; Jinotepeque and Chinandega, sugar; Leon, corn and salt; Masaya and other towns, edibles.

Costa Rica imported cotton, linen, woollen, and silk fabrics, fancy articles, comestibles, wines, liquors, and other things, from England, France, U. S., etc., and exported chiefly coffee, tortoise-shells, hides, rubber, vanilla, sarsaparilla, timber, etc. Her ports for foreign trade are at present Limon on the Atlantic, and Puntarenas on the Pacific; the latter being, down to 1883, almost the only port of Costa Rica; but of late the former, owing to railroad facilities, has obtained the first rank; shipments through Puntarenas being mainly of produce from Esparta, and other places near it. It was a free port at one time, but ceased to be such in Jan. 1861. In earlier years Matina and Caldera had been open ports, and even Guanacaste was made a free port in 1848. Port Limon was created in Oct. 1852; it has a free zone under decrees passed in 1883. Costa Rica's import values: 1845, $463,000, through Matina and Puntarenas; 1852-9, $7,330,398; 1864, $1,718,000; 1871, $2,225,000; 1873-4, $6,980,000; 1877, about $2,000,000; 1880-3, $7,220,000. Exports: 1845, $631,700; 1852-9, $7,458,913; 1864, $1,812,682; 1868, $2,189,118; 1871, $2,288,450; 1873-4, $8,192,517; 1877, $5,308,000; May 1, 1879, to Apr. 30, 1881, $7,724,810; 1882-3, $6,470,000. The exports of coffee from Puntarenas and Limon in 1884 were 191,719 centals. Large quantities of bananas were also exported from Limon. Vessels arrived in 1882-3, at Limon 86, at Puntarenas 75; in 1883-4, at Limon 77, at Puntarenas 110. Marure, Bosq. Hist. Cent. Am., i. 147; Baily's Cent. Am., 158; Squier's Cent. Am., 269-70, 310, 458-9, 471-2, 526; Squier's Travels, i. 83; Molina, Bosq. Costa R., 31-3, 64-6; Belly, Nic., i. 93; Laferrière, De Paris à Guatém., 34-7, 51-4, 168-9, 261-3, 436; Am. Cyclop., v. 290, 395; viii. 790; xiv. 610; Montúfar, Resúmen Hist., v. 519; Encyclop. Brit. (Am. ed.), vi. 398; xii. 135-6; El Guatemalteco, March 19, May 19, 1884; Wappäus, Mex. und Cent. Am., 322, 359; Jülfs, Die Seehäfen, 36; Lévy, Nic., 512, 516-17; Batres' Sketch Guat., 862-6, 73; Camp's Year-Book, 1861, 527; Salv., Constitucional, no. 6; Id., Diario Ofic., June 3, 7, Oct. 21, 1875; March 4, 1876; Sept. 17, 1878, suppl.; Jan. 11, May 3, 1879; Id., Gac., Aug. 12, 1853; Oct. 27, 1876; Feb. 27, 1877; Nic., Gaceta, Dec. 23, 1865; Dec. 15, 1866; Aug. 22, 1868; March 12, 1870; Id., Decretos, 1869-70, 141-4; Id., Boletin Ofic., March 8, 1862; Id., Mem. Min. Fomento, for years 1867-71; Id., Mem. Min. Hac., 1871-83; Presid. Cárdenas, Mensaje, Jan. 15, 1885; Guat., Recop. Ley., i. 771, 785-92; Id., Gob. Democ., i. 2-3; Guat., Mem. Sec. Hac., for years 1880-4; Id., Mem. Sec. Fomento, for years 1883-5; U. S. Gov. Docs., Comm. Rel., for years 1856-77; Id., H. Ex. Doc., Cong. 43, Sess. 1, vol. i. years 1873-4, 440-7; Sess. 2, xvi. 188-95, 200; Cong. 46, Sess. 2, xxv. pt 1, 27; Cong. 47, Sess. 1, xiv. 38; Costa R., Col. Ley., iv. 112-14; v. 232-4; vi. 301-3; x. 78-9, 142-4, 148-57; xvi. 199-200; xvii. 135-6; Id., Col. Dispos. Legisl., 1878, 113-14; Id., Mem. Sec. Hac., 1853, 11-12; 1875, 34; 1880, annexes 15-23; 1883, annexes 11-12; 1884, 24, 246-66, 304, 308; Id., Informe Sec. Obras Púb., 1878, 15-17; Id., Informe Sec. Agric., 1879, 22, and table 4; 1880, 23-4; Id., Gaceta Gob., Jan. 26, Feb. 16, 1850; Id., Mem. Sec. Marina, 1883, 7, and two tables, annex 5; Id., Regl. Franquicias, 1883, 1-15; Pan. Star and Herald, March 23, 1881; Sept. 13, 1882; Jan. 17, Feb. 1, 17, March 23, 1883; March 8, 15, Dec. 16, 1884; March 9, Oct. 24, 1885; June 2, 1886; La Estrella de Pan., Nov. 6, 1884; Samayoa, J. M., Apuntam., 1885, 5.

[XXXIII-6] The principal fairs were held at Chalatenango, San Vicente, and San Miguel, in Salvador. That of San Miguel took place in November, and lasted two weeks. There was another fair at the same town about the beginning of Feb., to which, as well as to the former one, large numbers of cattle were taken from Hond. and Nic. In Guat. annual fairs were held in several places; namely, Esquipulas, where large quantities of merchandise were sold; it was also a cattle fair; Rabinal in Vera Paz, for dry goods; Mazatenango, for cattle, cacao, dry goods, etc.; San Pedro Ayampuk; Sololá, for dry goods, fruit, and stock; Quezaltenango and Chimaltenango, for woollen manufactures. In Jocotenango a fair was held every Aug. In later times fairs have been authorized at several other places, to wit, at the hippodrome, near the capital, Salcajá, Santa Cruz del Quiché, Jalapa, Santa Rosa, and San Pedro Pinula. Squier's Cent. Am., 309-530; Guat., Mem. Sec. Fomento, 1882, 38; 1885, 39-40; Pan. Star and Herald, Sept. 14, 1885.

[XXXIII-7] The Am. Atlantic and Pacific Ship Canal Co. of New York, of which Vanderbilt and White were the chief owners, undertook to construct an interoceanic canal. Their contract with the Nic. govt involved the privilege to the company of exclusive steam navigation in the interior waters, meaning Lake Nicaragua. The company concluded to separate this privilege from the rest of the contract, and succeeded, Aug. 1851, in obtaining from the Nic. govt the monopoly of transit from San Juan del Norte to San Juan del Sur. It is unnecessary to go into details as to how this was consummated; suffice it to say, it was by fostering the intestine war then raging. U. S. Gov. Doc., H. Ex. Doc., 75, 141-5, x., Cong. 31, Sess. 1; Id., Sen. Doc., 68, 84-103, xiii., Cong. 34, Sess. 1; Cent. Am. Miscel. Doc., 45; Stout's Nic., 272-91; Wells' Walker's Exped., 203-5; Reichardt, Cent. Am., 210-11; Scherzer, Cent. Am., 245-6.

[XXXIII-8] The first steamboat used in Nic. waters was the Orus, wrecked on the Machuca rapids; the next, the Director, was worked over the rapids, and plied on the lake for several years, being the sole transport for passengers from San Cárlos to La Vírgen. The increase of the Transit company's business brought the Central America and other steamers. Nic., Corr. Ist., Sept. 5, 1850; Stout's Nic., 65-6.

[XXXIII-9] The particulars of this transaction appear elsewhere. Previous to this, in 1854, there had been serious differences between the gov. of Nic. and the company, about the settlement of accounts, and even then the govt threatened to cancel the charter. Guat., Gaceta, May 13, July 8, 1853; Perez, Mem. Hist. Rev. Nic., 55-6; Id., Mem. Camp. Nac., 27-30; El Nicaragüense, Feb. 23, 1856.

[XXXIII-10] In 1858 the Nic. govt confiscated the company's property, and the next year made the transit free to all nations. However, under a subsequent arrangement between it and the original Transit co., under the name of Cent. American Transit Co., ratified in March 1861, the latter agreed to reopen the route; but failing to do it within the required time, the govt seized all the property, as agreed in the contract. The matter was settled in diplomatic correspond. with the U. S. govt in 1863. Rocha, Cód. Nic., ii. 133-4, 141-2; Nic., Dec. y Acuerdos, 1857-8, 44-5; 1859, ii. 78-9; Id., Gaceta, Jan. 16, 1864. The company renewed its operations, and continued them until annihilated by the overland railway to S. F., in 1869. Lévy, Nic., 434.

[XXXIII-11] Costa R. in 1872 forbade the navigation of the Colorado River by Hollenbeck & Co. Nic., La Union, June 29, 1861; Id., Dec. y Ac., 1861, iv. 57-68; 1869-70, 100-6; Id., Gaceta, Aug. 8, 1868; March 12, July 23, Aug. 20, 1870; Dec. 7, 1872; Id., Mem. Min. Guerra, 1872, 12; Semanal Nic., Dec. 5, 1872; El Porvenir de Nic., May 26, June 2, 1872. Trade between Granada and San Juan del Norte was continued in piraguas and steamers, the former measuring from 15 to 25 tons. There were river and lake steamers. Merchandise was first transferred at San Cárlos, and often in the summer a second time at the Castillo. For some time the steamboat plying in the lower part of the river passed by the Colorado branch because of scanty water in the San Juan.

[XXXIII-12] Costa R., Informe Obras Púb., for years 1876-80; Id., Mem. Sec. Fomento, years 1883-4; Belly, Nic., i. 321; Lévy, Nic., 412; Nic., _Mem. Min. Guerra_, 1875, pp. x.-xv.; Pan. Star and Herald, Apr. 2, 1881; Feb. 1, 2, 1883; Id., Cronista, Jan. 20, 1883; Salv., Gac. Ofic., Sept. 5, 7, 1876; Presid. Barrios, Mensaje, 1876, 39-60; Guat., Recop. Ley., _Gob. Democ._, 10-12; Id., Mem. Sec. Fomento, for years 1880-5.

[XXXIII-13] Gold pieces of 10, 5, 2, and one dollar, the first named having the weight of 16,120 grammes. In former years it coined gold ounces with the weight of 25,836 grammes, worth $16, and halves, quarters, eighths, and sixteenths; silver peso, and its subdivisions worth 50, 25, 10, and 5 cts. Copper one-cent pieces containing 95 parts of copper and 5 of nickel. Silver in coins of 10 and 5 cts in legal tender only to the sum of $100; and cents not exceeding 100. The money coined in Costa Rica in the years 1829-82 has been as follows: gold, $2,351,808; silver, $56,648; total, $2,922,138. Astaburuaga, Cent. Am., 41; Costa R., Gaceta, Nov. 21, 1885; Id., Mem. Sec. Hac., 1883, annex no. 10.

[XXXIII-14] There is a nominal money used in retail trade called peso sencillo, worth 80 cents. The old Costa R. doubloon passes for $14.40 only, and the subdivisions in proportion. The new Costa R. piece of $5 is worth only $4.50. Chilian and Colombian condors pass for $9. Lévy, Nic., 370-1, 521.

[XXXIII-15] It paralyzed foreign trade, became depreciated, and caused other evils. Montúfar, Res. Hist., iii. 277. The govt endeavored to retire this coin by a gradual redemption every year.

[XXXIII-16] Foreign coins pass at their true valuation. Very little money leaves Honduras. Hond., Gaceta Ofic., May 20, 1853; Squier's Cent. Am., 272; Wells' Hond., 567-72.

[XXXIII-17] In former times there was the ounce of $16 and its subdivisions, and the silver peso with its subdivisions down to medio real, or 6¼ cents. Most of the silver coin in circulation was the macuquina or cut, which was a nuisance. The government in 1873 ordered it retired, which was in the course of time done. The system established in the law of 1870 found favor with the people as regarded gold coin. Not so with silver; the public clinging to the old denominations, and refusing to accept base metals which this law had also provided for.

[XXXIII-18] Standard of the coin 0.900. Weight of the peso 25 grammes.

[XXXIII-19] Mex. eagle $20; its subdivisions in proportion. Peruvian pieces of $20 and $10, and Colombian condors of $20 and $10, at their face value. Chilian condors of $10, $9.50. German gold piece of 20 marks, $4.93¾. American, French, and English gold coins have their full value; though they generally command a high premium. Further details may be found in Guat., Recop. Ley., ii. 578-82; Id., Gob. Dem., i. 83, 197; Salv., Diario, Dec. 14, 1878.

[XXXIII-20] There were in 1883 two banks, the Internacional and Colombiano, in the city of Guatemala; both having ample capital for a time stood high. The former, founded in 1878, suspended in 1885. The latter, founded in 1879 by capitalists who were mostly Colombians, has no agencies, and limits its operations within the capital of the republic, and to the sale of bills of exchange on foreign markets. There was also the Banco de Occidente at Quezaltenango with a capital of $100,000; its main object being to assist agriculture and manufactures in the wealthy departments of Los Altos. Its standing was somewhat shaken by its bills having been largely counterfeited in Sept. 1882; but it managed to weather the storm. The Banco de Nicaragua, a bank of issue, loans, and discounts, with a capital of $600,000, has been quite successful. It was chartered in May 1871. The Banco Anglo-Costaricense went into operation at Managua in 1873, with a capital of $100,000, under the management of Allan Wallis. The Banco Internacional of Salvador began business on the 20th of Aug., 1880, and has since been prosperous, excepting in 1885, owing to the war with Guatemala, and a subsequent revolution. However, the results of the first six months were satisfactory. In 1867 the Banco Nacional de Costa Rica went into operation at San José, with a capital of $500,000, and power to increase it to one million dollars, under a contract for ten years between John Thompson and the government. Dec. 1, 1876, the government decreed the statutes of the Banco de Emision, with a capital of $500,000 secured with mortgages on real estate to the amount of $1,000,000. But the stockholders failing to pay in the capital, the government suspended the bank, which had been operating, and ordered the books transferred to the Banco Nacional of San José, which was to redeem all notes of that bank in circulation. The Banco Nacional had been created by a decree of Dec. 25, 1877, with a capital of $250,000. Its operations were not to include the issue of notes. A charter was granted in Jan. 1881, to establish a Banco Hipotecario Franco-Costaricense with a capital of $500,000. The by-laws were approved by govt in July 1881. The bank was to have a branch in Paris. Batres' Sketch Guat., 24; S. F Cronista, Feb. 3, 1883; Jan. 31, Apr. 25, 1885; Nic., Gaceta, Aug. 3, 1867; July 8, 1871; Id., Semanal Nic., Apr. 10, 1873; Pan. Star and Herald, Aug. 3, 1867; Sept. 2, 1885; Costa R., Col. Ley., xvii. 45-50, 51-5; xx. 4-19, 110-16, 295-7, 304-6, 311-12; xxiv. 197-205; xxv. 245-60; Id., 1878, 104-6; 1881, 17-26, 64-6, 143-68; Guat., Mem. Sec. Fomento, 1882, 37.

[XXXIII-21] In 1809 there was a postal service between Guatemala and David in Panamá, via Cartago in Costa Rica, by which route correspondence was kept up with South America. In 1811 a tri-monthly mail was established between Guat. and Mex., Merida, the Windward Islands, and Spain. In 1829 there was a monthly packet between New York and the Isthmus. After that, some sort of mail service was kept up till it became regular with the establishment of steamship lines. In 1844 the first mail steamer touched at Chagres, and in 1845 a line was established between Panamá and Valparaiso. In 1846 a post-route between the two oceans was established under a grant of the Brit. govt. At this time the U. S. contemplated establishing a line of steamers from Pan. to Or. via Cal. The present Pacific Mail Steamship Company was organized in 1847 for that purpose, and on the 5th of Oct. their pioneer steamship, the California, went to sea, followed at short intervals by the Panamá and Oregon. At the inception of the enterprise, success was looked for only from the agricultural resources of the Pacific coast. The discovery of gold in Cal. secured that success. The company kept up the service between N. Y. and Colon, and between Panamá and S. F. via Acapulco and Manzanilla, and later sent ships to China. Niles' Reg., xxxvii. 242; Pan. Constitucional del Istmo, Oct. 30, 1834; Mayer's Mex. as it Was, etc., 369-74; Pan., El Movimiento, Dec. 22, 1844; Seemann's Hist. Ist. Pan., in Pan. Star and Herald, Apr. 17, 1847; Crosby's Statem., MS., 3-10.

[XXXIII-22] Costa R. has been quite successful. The number of pieces received at and forwarded by the main office at San José in 1883 were 1,377,243, against 549,096, in 1880, and 1,172,259, in 1882. In Nic. the service is a source of considerable expense to the govt. In 1861-2, the expenses were only $5,349. In 1881-2, $39,327; the receipts $19,476, leaving a deficit of $19,851. This is owing to long distances and sparse population. In Hond. the exchange of mail matter amounted in 1880 to 937,331 pieces; the expenses of the department, $17,102. In Guat. the aggregate amount of mail matter was as follows: 1880, 835,906; 1881, 1,039,652; 1882, 1,400,043; 1883, 2,111,366; 1884, 2,912,411. The receipts in 1884, $48,342; expend. $46,017. The appropriation for the fiscal year 1886-7 was computed at $58,812. Costa R., Mem. Sec. Gobern., years 1883-4; Id., Guerra, 1880, 1883; Id., Hac., 1884; Id., Gaceta, Feb. 3, 1885; Pan. Canal, Jan. 13, 1883; Id., Star and Herald, July 2, 1881; Feb. 8, 1883; Sept. 9, 1885; Nic., Informe Sec. Hac., 1875; Id., Id., 1883; Id., Mem. Sec. Gobern., 1883; Salv., Diario Ofic., Feb. 18, Nov. 30, 1875; July 12, Nov. 2, 1878; March 5, 1879; Guat., Mem. Sec. Fomento, 1880-5; Id., Presupuesto Gen., 1886, 18-19; Encyc. Brit., xvi. 492; El Guatemalteco, Feb. 2, Sept. 24, 1884; Batres' Sketch Guat., 69-76.

[XXXIII-23] Crosby's Statem., MS., 3-10. At the sailing of the Panamá there were 2,000 persons to embark for S. F.; four steamships to sail for the same destination; namely, Sarah Sands, Carolina, Isthmus, and _Gold Hunter_. Early in the summer of the same year there were 4,000 passengers waiting for vessels to take them to Cal., in a place which could hardly afford accommodations for 100. Hundreds of deaths occurred. Pan. Star, March 29, 1850; Sac. Placer Times, i., Apr. 26, 1850; _Advent. of a Capt.'s Wife_, 18; Cal. Courier, Sept. 14, 1850. The steamer _W. H. Aspinwall_ then began to ply on the River Chagres, between Chagres and Gorgona, which did away with the bongos nuisance. Sac. Transcript, March 14, 1851.

[XXXIII-24] 1850-5 were years of brisk business for the Isthmus. Gold circulated so abundantly that few did not handle gold coin. Provisions ruled high. Silver was so scarce that in 1850 a five-dollar gold piece could buy only 40 dimes. Americans said that Panamá was a better place for business than S. F. Maldonado, Anales Polít. Pan., MS., 7.

[XXXIII-25] 1852-66: passengers, 517,852; gold and silver, $849,157,076; paper money, $19,062,567; jewelry, $513,001; 1855-66: merchandise, mail matter, baggage and coal, 614,535 tons. Mail matter averaged 380 tons yearly. Merchandise steadily increased from 10,658 tons in 1856, the lowest, to 93,414 tons in 1866, the highest; and coal from 8,934 in 1856 to 13,418 in 1866. In 1860 and 1861, the coal transportation exceeded 16,000 tons a year. The total tonnage transported across the road in 1856 was 20,053, which increased every year till it reached 107,590 tons in 1866. The largest number of passengers crossed was in 1859, 46,976, nearly 5,000 in excess of 1858; the smallest number was in 1862, 26,420, being 5,280 less than in 1866. The large travel of 1859 was due to great reduction of passage money by steam lines running in opposition. The gold transported in 1856 was $48,047,692; in 1866, $48,234,463; at no other period did it equal these amounts. Silver showed a gradual increase from $9,439,648 in 1856 to $18,653,239, declining in 1866 to $14,331,751. Paper money was transported by the U. S. govt during the war. Jewelry varied from $192,718 to $844,490, but gradually declined. The tariff rates established by the company Jan. 1, 1865, were as follows: passengers, foreign, $25 each, children of 6 to 12 years one half, under 6, one quarter; Colombians, $10 each. Baggage exceeding 50 lb., 5 cts per lb. Merchandise, special rates: 1st class paying 50 cts per cubic foot; 2d to 6th 1½ cts to ¼ cent respectively per lb. All payments in Am. gold, or its equivalent. Otis' Hist. Pan. R. R., 139-45; Bidwell's Isth. Pan., 277-86, 389-93. In 1867, the value of the transit trade in merchandise and treasure over the route was $92,191,980, and 35,076 passengers. In 1872 the road conveyed 194 millions pounds of weight, 2½ millions of feet, besides 215,000 gallons of oil, 13,952 of wine, and 13,952 passengers. Jülfs, Die Seehäfen, 11. 1878-9, merchandise, 314,220 tons; 1880-4, 1,033,596 tons; the quantity in 1884 was 287,243, not including 10,000 tons of bananas, an increase of 71,518 over 1883. 1880-4, passengers, 1,024,128; the number in 1884 was 515,520, an excess of 75 per cent over 1883; the large increase being mainly due to the operations of the interoceanic canal company, and the transportation of their vast material. Pan. Star and Herald, May 2, 14, 1867; May 17, Sept. 5, 1877; June 23, 1881; Apr. 22, 1885; S. F. Ev'g Bulletin, Apr. 12, 1878; Apr. 2, 1884; S. F. Chronicle, Apr. 3, 1884; Superint. Burt's Report, March 7, 1885; U. S. Govt Doc., Comm. Rel., years 1857-77.

[XXXIII-26] The steamship lines doing such service in 1867 were the following: 1st. The Pacific Mail Co. of N. Y., whose capital in 1847 was $400,000; raised in 1850 to $2,000,000; in 1860 to $4,000,000; and in 1866 to $20,000,000; the lowest estimate of its property being set down in 1867 at $30,000,000. This company has passed through many vicissitudes, as indicated by the stock market. The highest rates attained by its shares were 248 in 1863, 325 in 1864, 329 in 1865, 234 in 1866. Every other year they have been under 200, the highest being in 173½ in 1867. From that time they sank very low, even to 16¼ cents in 1876, the highest that year being 39¼. 2d. Brit. and W. India and Pac. running between Liverpool, W. Ind., W. coast of S. and Cent. Am., and Colon. 3d. Brit. Royal Mail, between Southampton, W. Ind., eastern coast of Mexico, S. and Cent. Am., and Colon. 4th. Brit. Pan., New Zealand, and Australia. 5th. Brit. Pac. Steam Navigation Co., between Pan. and ports of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Chile. 6th. Pan. R. Road Co.'s steamers between Pan. and Acapulco, touching at all Cent. Am. ports. This line finally was merged in the Pacific Mail Co. 7th. Am. Cal. Or. and Mex. Co.'s line running between S. F. and Mex., and between S. F. and Portland, Or., and Island of Vancouver. It was afterward discontinued. 8th. French Transatlantic Co. running between St Nazaire in France, W. Ind., Mex., and Colon. 9th. German line. In 1871 the following arrivals of vessels occurred: steamers, Brit., 84, with 158,579 tons; Am., 25, with 66,813 tons; German, 36, with 42,740 tons; French, 24, with 15,782. Sailing vessels, 56 Brit., 43 Am., 12 German, 4 French, 8 Italian, 112 Colombian, mostly small. Grand total of tonnage, 316,271 tons. Otis' Hist. Pan. R. R., 50-6, 148-60, 169-232; Pan. Star and Herald, May 2, 1867; Apr. 14, 1877; U. S. Gov. Doc., Comm. Rel., 1871-2, 252, 263; Bidwell's Isth. Pan., 353-7. The author of the last-quoted work was British vice-consul at Panamá, and enjoyed leisure and opportunity for gathering facts from many sources, concerning the past and present history of Panamá, as well as on her resources, trade, etc. The arrangement of the book, as he acknowledges, is defective, there being no order—chronological or other—in the information he gives. The description of the social and political condition of the city and country, to the time of his writing, is quite accurate.

[XXXIII-27] Between 1825 and 1830 the expense of conveying a bale of goods overland, including duties and taxes, was $10 or $12.

[XXXIII-28] In 1820 it was deplorable. Córtes, Diario, 1820, iv. 180-2; Gordon's Hist. and Geog. Mem., 48-9.

[XXXIII-29] It was said that $45,000,000 of English manufactures unlawfully crossed the Isthmus for Sp. Am. between 1810 and 1817. Arrillaga, Inf., in Cedulario, iv. no. 1, 72; Alaman, Hist. Méj., iv. 473-4.

[XXXIII-30] Communication was kept up on the Atlantic side with Jamaica by a Brit. man-of-war which twice a month carried letters and specie; with Cartagena by government vessels bimonthly; and with the same and other points by independent traders. On the Pacific traffic was better along the whole coast. In 1825 the spirit of enterprise was rash. Exclusive of small coasters, there came to Chagres 1 ship, 7 brigs from France, 21 schooners from the W. Indies, 6 schooners from the U. S., and 3 from Cartagena. In 1828, these numbers were reduced to about 20 all together. In the same years the entries at Panamá were respectively 17 and 24 vessels. In 1830 trade was in a state of stagnation. Lloyd's Notes Isth. Pan., in Roy. Geog. Soc., i. 96-7; Niles' Reg., xxxviii. 141.

[XXXIII-31] Bocas del Toro was also made a free port. _El Arco Iris_, July 25, 1847; Molina, _der Freistaat, Costa R._, 58-9; S. F. Californian, ii., Sept. 29, 1847.

[XXXIII-32] The passengers from Cal. no longer remained in Pan., but were hurried off to Colon; thus the expenditure formerly made by the thousands of passengers ceased. Many business houses had to close in 1855 and 1856. Later the influx of passengers from Europe, who stop longer at Panamá, helped to support the hotels, etc. Bidwell's Isth. Pan., 263.

[XXXIII-33] A portion of the imports was paid for in remittances of specie, or in bills on Europe, sold from time to time by foreign men-of-war and steamship companies. The amount of exports may be augmented some $100,000 by produce sold to steamship companies. Besides pearls and pearl shells, ivory, nuts, and India-rubber figured considerably among the exports. The recklessness with which the rubber-trees have been cut down has reduced the production in 1886 to an insignificant quantity. The imports from 1856 to 1863 inclusive reached $6,386,135; the exports from 1857 to 1863 probably $5,000,000 or $6,000,000. Data on this point are unreliable. U. S. Govt Doc., Comm. Rel., 1859-61; Bidwell's Isth. Pan., 265-7, 277-8; Pan. Star and Herald, May 2, 1867.

[XXXIII-34] Adopted in 1853. Pan., Crónica Ofic., Aug. 20, 1853.

[XXXIII-35] The national government of Colombia, on the 3d of May, 1861, decreed that the notes of the National Bank, silver coin of the fineness of 0.500, and nickel coin, should be the only legal tender receivable at public offices of the nation, states, and department of Panamá. The enforcement of the decree in Panamá, where the money in circulation is sufficient for all purposes, is deemed ruinous, as the paper thus forced into circulation is irredeemable. There are no manufactures nor products that merchants can send abroad in payment of the articles of daily necessity which are imported. Pan. Star and Herald, May 31, 1886.

[XXXIII-36] Dunlop's Cent. Am., 39-40; Wagner, Costa R., 458-65; Squier's Cent. Am., 457. The exportation of shells on a large scale upon the coasts of the mainland, gulfs, and islands was farmed out in Oct. 1885, to a private party for 16 years, the lessee paying for the privilege as follows: 1st. $1,000 a year during the first six years, and $2,000 a year for each of the other ten. 2d. $6 for every 1,000 kilog. of pearl shells taken out in the first six years, and $8 per 1,000 kilog. the next ten years. Costa R., Gaceta, Nov. 7, 1885.

[XXXIII-37] Findlay, Directory, i. 236. J. Laferrière, De Paris à Guatémala; Notes de Voyages au Centre Amérique, Paris, 1877, fol. 448 pp., 4 sheets, and wood-cuts, is a narrative of a commercial traveller of three journeys to and through the five republics of Cent. Am., in 1866, 1870, and 1874-5, containing general information on their history and resources, agriculture, and other industries, and the character, manner, and customs of their inhabitants. Statistical tables, and numerous cuts of important towns and of natives are accompanied. The style is plain, clear, and concise, and the mode of treatment shows an intelligent observer. In an unpretentious manner the author gives much that is valuable on those countries.

[XXXIII-38] The information which has reached us for the years previous to 1817 is both meagre and contradictory. One authority has it that Spain undoubtedly received every year till 1809 a net revenue of a little over 50,000 pesos; another claims that a yearly allowance of 150,000 pesos came from the treasury of New Spain. Torrente, Revol. Hisp. Am., i. 23-5; Mex., Mem. Sec. Hac., 1875, 65. In 1812 the Sp. córtes abolished the tribute till then exacted from the Indians. Córtes, Diario, 1811-12, xi. 376.

[XXXIII-39] Including 157,681 pesos from excise, 3,872 pesos from gunpowder, and 256,975 from tobacco. During those five years the tobacco monopoly had sales amounting to 2,920,316 pesos, the expenses being 1,325,869 pesos, leaving a clear profit to the treasury of 1,594,447 pesos, or an average of 318,890 pesos a year. Dunn's Guat., 214.

[XXXIII-40] 'Habia desaparecido durante la esclavitud del imperio.' Marure, Bosq. Hist. Cent. Am., i. 140.

[XXXIII-41] The public debt amounted to $3,726,144, and the yearly expenses were nearly $900,000, to meet which the revenue was totally inadequate. The several states were in no better condition, inasmuch as the revenue from stamped paper, rum, excise, and other small sources, which had been assigned them, was not enough for their needs.

[XXXIII-42] A security for the payment of the interest and of the sinking fund to extinguish the principal, the revenue from tobacco and customs was hypothecated. Under the contract the interest was payable quarterly together with $50,000 for the sinking fund. It was calculated that the debt would be extinguished in twenty years, and that the interest would come to $482,571. El Indicador de Guat., Apr. 21, May 18, 1826; Guat., Mem. Min. Hac., 1830-1.

[XXXIII-43] A natural result of selling $100 bonds at $30, and paying $100 the next year. The govt was shamefully swindled by the few men who had a share in the transactions. Id., 1846, 51-6. On the other hand, the funds received from the loan were misapplied. Marure, Bosq. Hist. Cent. Am., 142-7.

[XXXIII-44] Direct imposts: Guatemala's sources of revenue were 3 per thousand on the assessed value of real estate, military, and road taxes. Several others existing as late as 1882, such as a tax on sugar-cane, were suppressed. Indirect duties on imports and exports, and port charges paid by ships. Stamped paper, slaughtering cattle, imposts on native flour, salt, inheritances, and endowments, and 5 per ct on sales and transfers of real estate. Monopoly of spirituous liquors, tobacco since 1879, gunpowder, and saltpetre. To these are to be added a number of other means of lesser import, but which in the aggregate yield considerably over $100,000.

[XXXIII-45] From the following sources, namely: direct taxation, $176,908; indirect ditto, $1,916,987; govt monopolies, $1,549,173; special revenue, $323,212; divers and extraordinary receipts, $88,577; contracts and divers negotiations, $2,569,418, being for temporary loans, etc. The total amount of revenue from customs included in the item of indirect taxation was $1,485,280, mostly collected at the general custom-house in Guatemala city; to which must be added $52,793 collected on the frontiers, $3,734 for export duties, and $1,530 for port charges. The revenue from imports in the four preceding years were: 1879, $1,501,729; 1880, $2,008,237; 1881, $211,765; and 1882, $1,679,047. The total revenue from all sources from 1852 to 1862 footed up $8,442,835; from 1863 to 1871, $8,547,529; 1871 yielded only $750,848; 1872-9, $19,571,233; 1880, $4,158,199; 1881, $4,423,964; 1882, $4,131,945. The net proceeds or actual revenue from the sale of spirituous liquors for 1878-83 was $6,178,095; from tobacco, 1879, for licenses, $8,656; 1880, two months, $32,232; 1881-3, $484,263. The total amount of municipal revenue throughout the republic was $485,622 in 1883, and $535,364 in 1884. Guat., Mem. Sec. Hac., 1873, 1880-4; Id., Fomento, 1885.

[XXXIII-46] The outlay in 1855 appears to have been $993,522, including $317,094 applied to payment of the public debt; 1864, $1,130,708; 1879, $4,526,263, as follows: Ordinary expenses, $2,728,457; public works, $27,837; advance to the railway company, $200,000; payment of warrants, reimbursement of temporary loans, etc., $1,569,969; 1881, $7,313,889, of which only $3,333,470 was for expenses; $163,241 was for purchase of tobacco, powder, and saltpetre; the balance to payment of debts; 1882, $6,503,422, of which $3,414,747 was for the actual expenses. Astaburuaga, Cent. Am., 84-5; Camp's Year-Book, 1869, 1527; Guat., Mem. Sec. Hac., 1880-4.

[XXXIII-47] In order to be enabled to meet expenses, and payments of the internal debt, the rate of duties on imports was raised in 1873 and again in 1879. It also established an export duty of 12½ cents per quintal on coffee. In 1879, after consolidating the whole debt, 40 per cent of the customs revenue was reserved for its gradual payment.

[XXXIII-48] The interest and portion of the sinking fund were made payable twice a year; viz., April 1st and Oct. 1st. After several deductions, the amount actually received in Guat. was $1,351,069. One of the deductions was of £15,000 for retiring from the London market £20,000 five per cent bonds of the federal loan, purchased at 75 per cent. Samayoa, Apuntam., 1885, 29-37; U. S. Gov. Doc., H. Ex. Doc., Cong. 48, Sess. 1, pt 1, 72; Mex., Informe Sec. Hac., 1873, 24-5; Pan. Canal, Jan. 13, 1883; Id., Cronista, Feb. 21, 1883; Guat., Mem. Sec. Hac., 1880-4.

[XXXIII-49] According to the calculation of the secretary of the treasury, it had become increased on Apr. 1, 1880, to $3,404,967.

[XXXIII-50] Guat. Presupuesto Gen., 1886, 111-14.

[XXXIII-51] The chief sources are import duties and port charges, export duty on woods, tax on spirituous liquors, stamped paper, tobacco, and gunpowder monopoly, etc. Squier, Cent. Am., 271, estimated the revenue in 1856 at about $250,000; but Astaburuaga, Cent. Am., 71-3, sets it down at $154,248, and deducting $37,713 for loans and other receipts not belonging to ordinary revenue, and $24,000 for two years' interest on the English debt, there remained $92,535 to meet an expenditure calculated at $116,898. The assembly voted for 1857, $134,253; 1858, $119,852; 1859, $132,912. In 1857 and 1858 $40,000 more had to be added, owing to political disturbances. Wappäus, Mex. und Cent. Am., 306. In 1867 the receipts seem to have been about $200,000, exceeding the expense some $17,000. Camp's Year-Book, 1869, 527. Those of 1869 are set down at about $560,000. Mex., Informe Sec. Hac., 1873, 88. For 1872 they were estimated at $400,000. Am. Cyclop., viii. 791. According to President Soto's message in 1883, the revenue in 1881 was $1,120,175, and in 1882, $1,298,878. Pan. Star and Herald, March 23, 1883; June 2, 1886.

[XXXIII-52] It is understood that President Bogran, in his efforts to diminish the expenditures, reduced in 1886 his own and other salaries. Id., June 2, 1886.

[XXXIII-53] Pres. Soto, in his message of 1883, says that the opinion prevailed in Europe that Honduras had been victimized; he believed that in truth and justice the republic cannot be held responsible for the enormous debt. Indeed, it is of a very questionable origin. It was contracted for the alleged purpose of constructing an interoceanic railway. There were four loans negotiated; namely, two in London, in 1867, for the nominal amount of £1,000,000, issued at 80 with 10 per cent interest; another in 1868 at Paris for the nominal sum of 62,252,700 francs, issued at 75 and 6 per cent interest, and the last in London in 1870, for £2,500,000, issued at 80 and 10 per cent interest. Am. Cyclop., viii. 791; Pan. Star and Herald, March 23, 1883; La Estrella de Pan., Jan. 10, 1884.

[XXXIII-54] The chief sources were customs, monopoly of spirituous liquors, tobacco, and gunpowder, stamped paper, etc. The receipts of 1848-56, including $175,419 for loans in 1856, were $3,408,068, averaging $359,183 a year; for 1866-9, $3,224,348, or $806,087 per year; for 1870-4, $4,930,238, or $1,232,560 yearly; for 1875-8, $7,880,316, or an average of $1,970,079. Expenditures: 1848-56, $3,251,802; 1867-8, $1,468,850; 1873-8, $9,269,113. Squier's Cent. Am., 307; Salv., Gaceta, Oct. 31, 1851; March 20, 1877; Id., Diario Ofic., March 24, 25, 1875; March 13, 14, 1878; Costa R., Boletin Ofic., March 14, 1855; Nic., Gaceta, March 23, 1867; Feb. 22, 1868; Astaburuaga, Cent. Am., 76; Camp's Year-Book, 1869, 527; Pan. Star and Herald, Apr. 1, 1869; Aug. 29, 1874; May 10, 1875; Feb. 26, 1884; Sept. 29, 1886; Id., Cronista, Jan. 20, 1883; Jülfs, Die Seehäfen, 36; Mex., Informe Sec. Hac., 1873, 88; Salv., Mem. Min. Hac., 1875-9; Laferrière, De Paris à Guatém., 190-1.

[XXXIII-55] The greater portion was Salvador's share of the federal debt; which was augmented by several foreign claims aggregating about $100,000. No interest on the federal debt had been paid since 1848. Squier's Cent. Am., 308.

[XXXIII-56] I find that the republic paid up in 24 years, prior to 1875, $4,833,775 to cover both the federal debt and its own—an equivalent of about a million and a quarter every five years by a population of only 600,000 souls. Salv., Diario Ofic., Apr. 6, Aug. 4, Oct. 28, 1875; Oct. 17, 1878; Id., Gaceta Ofic., Feb. 15, 1878; Am. Cyclop., xiv. 610; Mex., Informe Sec. Hac., 1873, 25; Laferrière, De Paris à Guatém., 191; Salv., Mem. Min. Hac., 1875; Nic., Semanal Nic., Apr. 16, 1874; Pan. Star and Herald, Feb. 26, 1884.

[XXXIII-57] The chief sources of revenue are those of customs, slaughtering cattle, and sales of spirituous liquors, tobacco, gunpowder, and stamped paper. The total revenue of 1845 amounted to $74,911, a sum entirely inadequate to meet the most necessary expenses of the government. The import duty was 20 per cent ad valorem, to which was added 8 per cent. The only export duty was 1 to 3 per cent on gold, silver, and precious stones. A transit duty of 5 per cent was levied on goods passing through Nic. to the other states. Merchant vessels paid 50 cts per ton. The total revenue from customs in 1846 was $51,818; from internal taxation, $3,626; from rum, etc, $24,260. The revenue from tobacco was pledged to the Brit. govt, in order to ransom the port of San Juan del Norte. Other sources were insignificant. Receipts of 1851, $122,686; 1857-60, $1,327,637; 1861-70, $5,665,877. The tariff of imports was modified in Dec. 1868, and increased 10 per cent in Feb. 1870. Agricultural implements, materials for mining, and other articles, were exempted from import duty by a law of Nov. 2, 1869. The revenue from customs became flourishing, and yielded in 1883 $1,275,506, due to the law of Sept. 25, 1879, which raised the duties on several articles, and changed the mode of collecting from ad valorem to weight. It seems that most goods paid no more under the new system than formerly; but much fraud was averted. Imports generally paid 50 per cent ad val. The port of San Juan del Norte and the Mosquito reservation have a free zone, the merchants of San Juan paying a tax in lieu of import duties. Receipts of 1871, $958,922; 1873-80, $8,416,879; 1881-2, $3,351,767, an increase of $951,674 over the preceding two years. Belly, Nic., i. 311; Lévy, Nic., 353-8; Nic., Gaceta, March 6, 1863; March 18, Apr. 29, 1865; Jan. 20, 1866; March 21, 1868; Jan. 2, 23, 30, Nov. 6, 1869; May 27, 1871; Jan. 20, 1872; Id., Decretos, 1869-70, 123; Pan. Star and Herald, Feb. 1, 1883.

[XXXIII-58] Expenses of the supreme powers, $112,548; departments of the interior, $513,069; war, $389,466; treasury, $1,353,612; foreign relations, $762,457; sundries, $109,787. During this term was paid $57,586 outstanding from the preceding, the ordinary expenses of administration; for improvements, $563,918; and extraordinary expenses caused by disturbances. The expenditures in 1846 and 1851 were $106,145 and $173,646, respectively, in both cases creating deficits; in 1859-60, $652,515; 1861-70, $5,316,951; 1871-2, $1,721,355; 1873-4, $1,995,040. Those of the following years kept pace with the increased revenues; but large sums were appropriated to internal improvements, education, and other purposes conducive to the intellectual and material advancement of the republic. Nic., Mem. Sec. Hac., for years 1846 to 1883; and the Gacetas quoted in the preceding note.

[XXXIII-59] She had on the 15th of Sept., 1867, recognized £45,000 as her proportion. Nic., Gaceta, March 28, 1868.

[XXXIII-60] Presid. Cárdenas, Mensaje, Jan. 15, 1885, in Costa R., Gaceta Ofic., Feb. 4, 1885. For further information, see the biennial reports of the minister of the treasury; Lévy, Nic., 358-60; Am. Cyclop., xii. 424; Pan. Star and Herald, Feb. 1, 1883.

[XXXIII-61] From customs, $427,395, which was less than had been expected; liquor monopoly, $200,168; stamped paper and stamps, $63,033; paper money issued, $310,764; the balance from sundry sources. The receipts in specie were $1,046,967. The law of Dec. 10, 1839, first established the sources of revenue for the state govt as follows: Maritime and internal duties on merchandise; purchase and coinage of bullion; sales of public lands; monopoly in cultivation and sale of tobacco; sale of gunpowder, stamped paper, domestic and foreign liquors; postage, excise, confiscation of contraband goods, and fines. Montúfar, Reseña Hist., iii. 272, 570.

[XXXIII-62] A new tariff, to go into effect Jan. 1, 1886, was decreed, subjecting imported merchandise to specific duties, and considerably modifying the tariff of 1877. Gold and silver in bullion, bars, dust, or coin, as also fence wire, lightning rods, machinery for agriculture, material and tools for ship-building, ships, and animals were exempted from duty. Costa R., Gaceta, Sept. 12, 13, 1885; Id., Col. Ley., xxv. 15-47. The following figures show approximately the receipts of the government for about forty years past, to wit: 1845, $132,000—there is no published history of the finances of Costa R. prior to 1845; 1847-50, $1,006,207; 1851-60, $5,956,873; 1861-70, $8,518,636; 1871-82, $30,475,828, less amounts included, which were merely casual receipts, $4,545,277, leaving for actual revenue, $25,930,551. Molina, Bosq. Costa R., 45; Squier's Cent. Am., 470-1; Astaburuaga, Cent. Am., 43; Encyclop. Brit. (Am. ed.), vi. 398; Costa R., Informe Sec. Hac., 1852-85.

[XXXIII-63] As near as I have been able to ascertain, the outlay of the Costa Rican treasury has been, for 1847-50, $986,245; 1851-60, $6,637,124; 1861-70, $9,682,265; 1871-82, $32,362,189. Id.; Pan. Star and Herald, Aug. 14, 1886.

[XXXIII-64] 'Se logró la total cancelacion de la deuda inglesa.' Costa R., Informe Min. Hac., etc., 1848, 16.

[XXXIII-65] The history of these loans, as furnished in the reports of the Costa Rican treasury department, is the following: In 1871, Costa Rica contracted with Bischoffsheim and Goldsmidt for a loan of the nominal amount of £1,000,000, at 72 with 6 per cent interest, and 2 per cent for a sinking fund; however, per agreement of May 5, 1871, the rate was reduced to 56, and only yielded £560,000. Bischoffsheim and Goldsmidt retained £105,000, which reduced the proceeds to £455,000, and this sum was further diminished £42,000, leaving only £413,000, or somewhat less than 42 per cent. A new loan was negotiated in 1872, with Knowles and Foster of London, which appeared as for £2,400,000, but did not exceed £2,226,500, the difference not having been taken up. The negotiation was at 82, with interest at 7 per cent, and 1 per cent for a sinking fund. This loan actually yielded to Costa Rica £598,611 18_s._ 5_d._, which is explained thus: Knowles and Foster paid over to E. Erlanger and Co. of London in money £1,576,240 9_s._ 1_d._, the difference between this sum and that taken up being £650,259. Erlanger and Co. were the syndics of the loan under the 8th clause of the contract with Knowles and Foster, and had bound themselves to take up £800,000 of it. Under the 3d and 4th clauses, they were empowered to repurchase bonds for account of Costa Rica, though subject to the following conditions: 1st. That the repurchasing should be indispensable to secure the success of the loan; 2d. It was not to be done with the £800,000 Erlanger and Co. were bound for; and 3d. The operations were not to be effected but within 30 days of the issue. This condition was violated. Erlanger and Co. claimed to have repurchased with the money received by them bonds of both the 6 per cent and 7 per cent loans to the value of £1,426,500. The result of this transaction was that the loan, save the £800,000 taken up by Erlanger and Co., was exhausted; and yet it was said, in and out of Costa Rica, that her government had received $17,000,000. Encyclop. Brit. (Am. ed.), vi. 398. The whole yield of both loans was but £1,011,611 18_s._ 5_d._, or $5,058,060. Besides the £105,000 retained by Bischoffsheim and Goldsmidt, under the pretext of securing the interest of the 6 per cent loan, the government remitted for interest and sinking fund £135,000, which were taken from the very funds received, and reduced them to £876,611 18_s._ 5_d._ Moreover, under an agreement with Erlanger and Co., the government of Costa Rica was authorized to draw on them for £150,000. Its drafts were allowed to go to protest, and the amounts drawn for had to be replaced. The government felt that it had been victimized, and in order to protect the country's good name, after consultation with legal lights of London, established suits at law against the parties. The suit has cost a great deal of money; early in 1877 $373,380 had been paid for expense. Costa R., Mem. Sec. Hac., 1874-7. Should the decisions of the British courts be against Costa Rica, her financial situation should not be deemed very alarming, as is made apparent. The 7 per cent loan, reduced to Costa Rican money at 9 per cent, £2,226,500, nominal $12,134,425.

Bonds repurchased, £1,026,500 $5,594,425

Received from Erlanger and Co., and appearing among the liabilities, £598,611 18_s._ 5_d._ 3,262,435

Amount not appearing among the liabilities, £601,388 1_s._ 7_d._ 3,277,565 ----------- $12,134,425

Accepting the responsibility for the whole 7 per cent loan, it would amount to $12,134,425, deducting $3,262,435, and $5,594,425 for repurchased bonds, the total sum not included in the liability in 1876 would be reduced to $3,277,565, to which must be added $13,517, balance of the 6 per cent loan, making $3,291,082. Advantageous offers were received from Europe to extinguish the debt, which, if accepted, would reduce the nominal indebtedness of $11,990,000 to $2,398,000. This loan was negotiated for funds to build a railway. The road has cost $12,239,296, and its three sections are valued in 1883 at $6,600,000. Id., 1872-5, 1883, annexes 7 and 8.

[XXXIII-66] Pan. Star and Herald, March 29, 1884; Costa R., Gaceta, Sept. 4, 1885. Half a million dollars was voted by congress in July 1886 to the extinction of the internal debt. Id., Aug. 14, 1886.

[XXXIII-67] From customs, $145,000; rum, $24,000; loans, $42,500; received from Spain, $10,000; voluntary and forced contributions, $150,000; judicial deposits, $101,000; papal dispensation bulls, $27,000—were among the items. Lloyd's Notes Isth. Pan., in Roy. Geog. Soc., Jour., i. 99.

[XXXIII-68] Including $4,527, balance from the preceding year; $86,820 of loans; $70,000 from customs; $15,820, duties on tobacco. Id., 98.

[XXXIII-69] The general government decreed in 1849 the suppression of tithes; requiring of the several provinces of the Isthmus to make up the amount which the suppressed tax yielded the previous year. The aggregate was to be applied to cover national expenses. Pinart, Pan. Col. Doc., MS., no. 86, p. 14; Pan., Crónica Ofic., Oct. 23, 1849.

[XXXIII-70] The commercial tax was not to be more than double that assessed in 1885. The general govt on the 1st of April, 1885, established a salt monopoly, and in the same year decreed the reëstablishment of custom-houses at the Isthmus ports. This decree was subsequently suspended. La Estrella de Pan., May 16, 1885; Pan. Star and Herald, Nov. 2, 4, Dec. 30, 1885. The budgets for the ten years from 1867 to 1876 amounted together to $3,018,391, and the appropriations voted for the same year were $3,335,084. The absence of regular accounts for the period 1867-75 renders it impossible to find out what were the actual receipts and expenditures. The revenue from Jan. 1, 1876, to June 30, 1877, was $339,526, and the expenses reached $356,483, though only $274,298 were paid. The revenue collected from July 1, 1877, to June 30, 1878, $218,095; the assembly voted for expenses of that fiscal year $382,841, but the government seems to have paid out only $226,278. For 1880-1 the legislature computed the revenue at $300,628. It had the preceding year authorized the executive to increase the commercial tax 25 per cent. The expenditures for the year were estimated at $316,077. Pan., Mem. Sec. Jen., 1878, 43-6, 48; 1879, 3, 32-3; Id., Leyes, 1879-80, 8, 9, 64-78.

[XXXIII-71] $81,375 of it bore interest at 6 per cent. Pan., Mem. Sec. Hac., 1879, 37. Dec. 19, 1879, the legislature authorized the executive to borrow $50,000 at 12 per cent. For further information, see Pan., Gaceta, Nov. 17, 1870, to Sept. 1, 1881, passim.

[XXXIV-1] See summary of geographical knowledge and discovery from the earliest records to the year 1540. Hist. Cent. Am., i. 68-154, this series.

[XXXIV-2] They thus argued from the first: Quintus Metellus Celer, proconsul of Rome in Gaul, was presented by the king of Suevia with a number of red men, who had been thrown upon his coast. So said Cornelius Nepos, and Pliny repeated it. Now these savages, having no knowledge of ships or navigation, could not have come from America; they were not black, and consequently were not from Africa. There were no people in Europe like them; so they must have come from Asia. But how? Either from the east or from the west; they could not have rounded the eastern hemisphere either by its northern or southern side, for obvious reasons; therefore they must have come from the north-west, and hence there must be a way from Asia north-eastward to Europe, running round the north pole. Upon this logic were staked thousands of lives and millions of money. Dominicus Marius Niger, the geographer, speaks of men who were driven from India through the north sea to Germany, while on a trading expedition. As late as 1160, some strange persons arrived on the coast of Germany. Humboldt thought they might have been Eskimos. Othon, in his Storie of the Gothes, speaks of such arrivals, arguing that they must have drifted in through a north-west passage. Gilbert's Discourse, in Hakluyt, iii. 16-17. Again, Hakluyt finds it recorded that some 200 years before the coming of Christ, the Romans sent a fleet against the Grand Khan, which, crossing the strait of Gibraltar, and steering toward the N. W., in lat 50° found a channel, in which it sailed to the westward until it reached Asia, and after fighting the king of Cathay, returned by the way it went.

[XXXIV-3] Hist. Cal., i. 1-109; Hist. Northwest Coast, i. 1-342; Hist. North Mexican States and Texas, i. 1-201; Hist. Oregon, i. I will add, in this connection, that Juan de Ayola, with 200 Spaniards, in 1535 crossed from the Paraguay River to Peru. Irola, twelve years later, ascended the Paraguay River to 17° S., crossed the mountains to the Guapay River, and succeeded in establishing communications between Peru and her dependency, La Plata. Lardner's Cabinet Cyclop., ii. 90.

[XXXIV-4] They fitted out two vessels, Le Maire advancing most of the money, and going on the voyage as supercargo, Van Schouten as commander. They doubled the cape with one remaining ship in Jan. 1616. The Spaniards afterward completed the exploration, and their forts in Magellan Sound became useless. The straits of Magellan have been, however, used in late years as the transit of an English steamship line.

[XXXIV-5] Previously several attempts had been made. Kotzebue, of the Russian navy, went in 1815 to Bering Strait, and the next year discovered the sound bearing his name. Golovnin made a voyage also, but accomplished nothing. The English made a number of efforts, which, if unsuccessful in not attaining the main object, added much to geographic knowledge. Herewith I give the expeditions fitted out in England, or under English auspices. In 1818 two ships, the Dorothea and Trent, under Buchan and Franklin, went to the Spitzbergen waters, but could not advance far. Two other ships, the Isabella and Alexander, under John Ross and W. E. Parry, were ordered to Davis Strait and verified Baffin's exploration of Baffin Bay. Ross entered Lancaster Sound, and reached 81° 30' W. by 74° 3' N. Parry made three other voyages, in 1819, 1821, and 1824, in the last of which one of his ships, the Fury, was wrecked in seeking a passage through Regent Inlet. In 1827 he attempted the polar voyage in sled-boats from Spitzbergen, reaching 82° 40' 30", the farthest point hitherto attained. Capt. John Franklin tried to find the passage overland from York Factory on the west coast of Hudson Bay. He wintered at Fort Chepeweyan in 1819, and in the Enterprise in 1820. In July 1821 he navigated the Arctic sea, east of Coppermine River, a considerable distance, hoping from the trend of the coast to reach Hudson Bay. Want of provisions compelled the abandonment of the expedition, and after severe hardships, and journeying 5,500 miles, reached Great Slave Lake in Dec. 1821. Lyon in 1824 attained Sir Thomas Rowe's Welcome. Franklin renewed his land survey of the Arctic coasts, 1825-7. He wintered in 1825 on Great Bear Lake, descended the Mackenzie, and surveyed the coast line westward to Return Reef in 70° 26' N., and 148° 52' W. Meanwhile Richardson and Kendall of his party made a voyage from Mackenzie to Coppermine River, doubling several capes, and completing the survey of the coast through 60 degrees of longitude. Beechey in 1826 in the Blossom explored the coast from Kotzebue Sound to Icy Bay. One of his parties reached Cape Barrow. He waited for Franklin till Oct. 1827, and returned home via Cape Horn. Ross in 1829 tried to find a passage through Regent Inlet, but had to abandon his ship in Victoria Harbor, near 70°. P. W. Dease and T. Simpson in 1837-9 made important explorations between Point Barrow and Mackenzie River; the portion on the east side between Point Turnagain and the estuary of the Back's Great Fish River; and also the south sides of Victoria Land and King William Land. John Rae of the Hudson's Bay Company surveyed a part of the Arctic coast east. In 1845 he surveyed Regent Inlet east and west, found an isthmus between Regent Inlet and the sea explored by Dease and Simpson. Franklin and Crozier were despatched in May 1845 with two stout ships, the Erebus and Terror, well supplied for three years. The expedition sent letters from Whalefish Island, near Disco, and was last seen on July 26th waiting to cross the 'middle ice' on to Lancaster Sound, 220 miles distant. The orders were to proceed to about 74¼° N. lat. and 98° W. long.; thence take a S. and W. course for Bering's Strait, the passage west from Melville Island being precluded. A number of expeditions were despatched in search of Franklin; namely, one under John Richardson and Rae, 1847-9; ships Enterprise and Investigator under Ross and Bird, 1848-9; Herald and Plover under Kellet and Moore, 1848-52; North Star, commanded by Saunders, 1849-50; the Investigator and Enterprise, in 1850, under McClure and Collinson; whaler Advice, under Goodsir; a squadron commanded by Austin, consisting of the Resolute and the Assistance. Capt. Ommaney with two steam tenders under lieuts Osborn and McClintock; several ships sent by Franklin's wife; Rae in 1851; expedition under Edward Belcher, 1852-4; ships Amphitrite and Plover, 1852-5; McCormick in 1852; Rae in 1853-4; Anderson in 1855; and several others, among which deserve mention the American expeditions under lieut De Haven and S. P. Griffin, E. K. Kane, Hayes, Hall, and Schwatka; most of whom made important geographical discoveries and found relics of Franklin's party. It was ascertained beyond a doubt that Franklin sailed up Wellington Channel to 77°, descended by the west side of Cornwallis Island, and wintered 1845-6 at Beechey Island. The wintering positions of the ships were in 1846-7-8 off the north end of King William's Island. Franklin died June 11, 1847, and the ships were abandoned near the above spot Apr. 22, 1848, Capt. Crozier intending to lead the 105 survivors to Great Fish River. Only 40 men reached the vicinity of this river, and all died, according to Eskimo accounts. On this journey Lancaster Strait was connected with the navigable channel along the continent, and the existence of the north-west passage proved. Richardson's Polar Regions, 136-7, 146-9, 151-202; Lardner's Cabinet Cyclop., iii. 176-7, 198-247; Tytler's Hist. View, 133-4, 283-92; Franklin's Narr., i. ii.; Quarterly Rev., xviii. 219; Am. Jour., xvi. 130-2; Encyclop. Brit., xi. 347; xviii. 329-30; xix. 331-2, 335-8; Dictionnaire de la Conversation, xii. 2; xiii. 608-10.

[XXXIV-6] Sent by Capt. Pellet on Barrow Strait, and was guided by a message left by McClure at Winter Harbor on Melville Island.

[XXXIV-7] Nordenskiöld, a Swedish professor and experienced navigator, with the steamer Vega, commanded by Lieut Palander, on the 19th of August, 1878, reached Cape Severo or Tchelyusken, the most northern point of Siberia and of the Old World in 77° 41' N., and steered a south-easterly course, the sea free from ice and quite shallow. Aug. 27th the mouth of the Lena River was passed, the Vega parting company with her tender, the Lena, and continuing her course eastward; she almost accomplished the passage that first season; but toward the end of Sept. the Vega was frozen in off the shore of a low plain in 67° 7' N. and 173° 20' W. near the settlement of the Chugaches. After an imprisonment of 294 days, the Vega on the 18th of July, 1879, continued her voyage, and on the 20th passed Bering Strait. Nordenskiöld, without loss of life or damage to his ship, arrived at Yokohama Sept. 2, 1879. Encyclop. Brit. (Am. ed.), xix. 337.

[XXXIV-8] For canal: I. Tehuantepec, connecting the rivers Coatzacoalcos and Chimilapa. II. Honduras. III. River San Juan de Nicaragua: 3. River San Cárlos, Gulf of Nicoya. Nicaragua Lake: 4. Rivers Niño and Tempisque, Gulf of Nicoya; 5. River Sapoa, Bay of Salinas; 6. San Juan del Sur; 7. Port Brito. Managua Lake: 8. River Tamarindo; 9. Port Realejo; 10. Bay of Fonseca. IV. Panamá: River Chagres: 11. Gorgona, Panamá; 12. Trinidad, Caimito; 13. Navy Bay, Rivers Chagres, Bonito and Bernardo; 14. Gulf of San Blas, and River Chepo. V. Darien: 15. Bay of Caledonia, Port Escocés, Gulf of San Miguel; 16. Rivers Arguia, Paya, and Tuyra, Gulf of San Miguel. River Atrato: 17. River Napipi, Bay of Cupica; 18. River Uruando, Kelley's Inlet. Overland. 1st. Coatzacoalcos, Tehuantepec; 2d. Bay of Honduras to Bay of Fonseca; 3d. River San Juan, Nicaragua, Managua, Bay of Fonseca; 4th. Port Limon to Caldera, Costa Rica; 5th. Laguna de Chiriquí on Golfo Dulce; 6th. Colon, Gorgona, and Panamá; 7th. Gorgon Bay, Realejo; 8th. Gorgon Bay and San Juan del Sur. _Nouv. Annales des Voy._, cliii. 9-10; Davis' Rept, 20.

[XXXIV-9] A survey made in 1715 was sent to the secret archives of Madrid, where other like documents lie hidden. In 1774 the Spanish officers Corral and Cramer, after inspecting the route reported that a canal of about eight leagues might join the Chimalapa and Malpaso rivers, and establish a communication between the two streams. The Spanish general Orbegoso in 1821 explored this isthmus, and formed a map, which was not published till 1839. In 1825 he showed that it was not easy to carry a through-canal across Tehuantepec. In 1842-3 a survey was made under the auspices of José de Garay by C. Moro and others, to determine the practicability of a ship canal by way of the Coatzacoalcos to the gulf of Tehuantepec. The objections to the route were shown to be the expense of cutting, the uncertainty of water upon the summit level, and inadequate ports at the termini. Garay, however, announced as practicable a canal of the same size as the Caledonia, in Scotland, and was put in possession of lands, etc.; but nothing came of the transaction but diplomatic complications resulting from Garay's transfer of his grant to a foreign company. Finally, the Mexican congress in 1851 declared the grant forfeited. Nouv. Annales des Voy., ci., iii., 8-9; Duflot de Mofras, Explor. de l'Oregon, 119; Reichardt, Cent. Am., 183-4, 188-9; Córtes, Diario, 1813, xix. 392; Robles, Prov. Chiapa, 70; Chevalier, Pan., 61-2; Mex. Col. Dec. y Ord., 115; Id., Col. Ley., Ord. y Dec., iii. 113-14; Bustamante, Med. Pacific, MS., ii., supplem. 15; Mex. Mem. Sec. Rel., 47-8; Rivera, Gobern. Mex., ii. 116; Id., Hist. Jalapa, ii. 362; iv. 211, 225, 236; Dublan and Lozano, Legisl. Mej., i. 738-9; Instituto Nac. de Geog., Bol. No. 1, 30-43, with map and profile; Ward's Mex., i. 311; Liot's Pan., Nic. and Tehuan., 6-12; Ramirez, Mem., 1-108; Garay, Privilegio, 1-28; Id., Survey Isth. Tehuan., 3-188; Manero, Notic. Hist., 51-6; Id., Apunt. Hist., 12-13; Mex. Mem. Sec. Guerra, 1852, 19-22; Id., Mem. Instruc. de los derechos, etc., in Mexican Financier, no. 1, 1-39. In 1850-1 an American commission headed by Maj. Barnard, U. S. Engineers, surveyed the route, who reported it to possess but little 'merits as a practicable line for the construction of a ship canal.' Davis' Report, 5-6. In 1869 officers of the U. S. surveyed the route, and made a favorable report. In 1870 Capt. R. W. Shuffeldt, of the U. S. navy, made another survey, which confirmed the conclusions of the former, to the effect that no extraordinary engineering difficulties existed, as sufficient water could be had from rivers in the Sierra Madre to supply the canal. The route begins about 30 miles above the mouth of the Coatzacoalcos, and after traversing a long distance, rises to a level of about 680 ft, then descends to the lagoon on the Pacific, a total distance of 120 miles. The distance from New Orleans to Hongkong would be 8,245 miles less than by Cape Horn, and 1,588 less than by way of Panamá. Am. Cyclop., iii. 690; Manero, Apunt. Hist., 13-15.

[XXXIV-10] By resolution of the Mexican congress, the contract of the American company was declared void in Oct. 1882, and soon after the govt made an arrangement to have the road built on its own account. Id., Artículos, Soc. Arquit., 7-10; S. F. Call, Oct. 5, 1882; Mex., Diario Ofic., Oct. 10, 17, 18, 20, 1882.

[XXXIV-11] Mex., Diario Debates, 10th Cong., i. 273-1930, passim.; Id., El Noticioso, Nov. 29, 1880; Id., _Col. Ley._, xxxvi. 320-4; Id., Diario Ofic., June 2, 1881; Aug. 10, 23, 1882; Mex'n Financier, Dec. 13, 20, 27, 1884; Jan. 10, 24, 1885.

[XXXIV-12] The Mexican govt guaranteed in 1885 one and a quarter million dollars per annum for 15 years. Pan. Star and Herald, Jan. 16, 1886.

[XXXIV-13] Gov. Pedrarias Dávila had the outlet of lakes Nicaragua and Managua discovered. His officers Este and Rojas favored the plan of a canal round the falls of the San Juan, and another on the Pacific slope. The project occupied the court and colony for many years. Herrera, iv., iii., ii.; Cent. Am., Extractos Sueltos, in Squier's MS., xxii. 108; Fröbel, Aus. Am., i. 144, 241. The plan not only engaged the Spaniards but the French and English, the latter contemplating the conquest of the country. The royal engineer Manuel Galisteo in 1781, the system of locks being little known then, declared the connection of the lake with the Pacific to be impracticable. In 1791 La Bastide proposed widening the river Sapoa between the lake and Papagayo Gulf, and cutting a canal between that river and the gulf of Nicoya; but the French revolution caused the matter to be forgotten. In 1814 the Spanish córtes decreed the survey and construction, but subsequent political events made that decree inoperative. Saravia, Bosq. Polít. Est., 13-17; Viajero, Univ., xxvii. 180-4; Bastide, Mém. Sur. Nouv. Passage, 1-70; Humboldt, Essai Polít., i. 1-17; Bourgoane's Trav., in Pinkerton's Coll., ii. 498-9; Reichardt, Cent. Am., 169-70; Duflot de Mofras, Explor. de l'Oregon, i. 137; Squier's Nic., 658.

[XXXIV-14] Herewith I give a synopsis of what occurred. In 1823 a franchise was given to John Baily for a house in London, who did nothing, and the privilege was granted to parties in New York, who also failed to carry out the stipulations. Numerous proposals came between 1825 and 1829, which were successively accepted, but neither of them had effect. In 1829 a franchise was decreed to the king of Holland, and there was some prospect of a canal being constructed; but the war which detached Belgium from Holland broke out, and the king abandoned the project. President Morazan then contemplated doing the work on Central American account, and the survey was begun in 1837, interrupted by Morazan's fall, but continued in 1838 for account of Nicaragua. This same year Edward Belcher, of the Brit. navy, suggested the possibility of an artificial communication between Lake Managua and the bay of Fonseca. Baily's explorations along the line from Rio Lajas to San Juan del Sur were terminated in 1843, and their publication furnished exact data on the canal. Meanwhile, P. Rouhand (1839), Viteri (1840), Castellon and Jerez (1842), had unsuccessfully tried to raise funds for the work in Europe. The king of France in 1844 refused his coöperation. In 1846 Louis Napoleon became warmly interested for a time. Great Britain in 1847 seized San Juan del Norte on the north, and Tiger Island on the south. Louis Napoleon turned his thoughts to other subjects. Örsted studied, in 1847-8, for the Costa Rican govt, a canal project which differed from Baily's in choosing a low line south of San Juan del Sur along the Sapoa River into Salinas Bay. Nicaragua in 1848 entered into a contract to build the canal with a house in New York, which, however, surrendered it. Baily's Cent. Am., 127-50; Annales des Voy., cliii. 14-17; clvii. 16-17; Nouv. Annales des Voy., xxviii. (1825), 370-82; xxxii. (1826), 369-74; Squier's Trav., ii. 251-80, 405-20; Id., Nic., 658; Liot's Pan. Nic. and Tehuan., 13-16; Niles' Reg., xxx. 447; xxxi. 2, 72-3; lxiv. 130-1; lxv. 57-61; lxvii. 148; Salv., Diario Ofic., Dec. 16, 1879; Reichardt, Cent. Am., 171-3; Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour., xiv. 127-9; xx. 172; Scherzer, Cent. Am., 241; Belly, Nic., i. 84-7, 137; Id., Carte d'études, 35-45; Strain's Int. Comm., 7-8; Garella, Projet, 182-8; Sampson's Cent. Am., 7-18; Marure, Mem. Hist., 1-47; Bülow, Nic., 44-57; U. S. Comm. Rept, 145, p. 230-65; U. S. Gov. Doc., Sen. Miscel., Cong. 30, Sess. 1, no. 80, 69-75; Id., H. Ex. Doc., Cong. 31, Sess. 1, no. 75, 50-326, passim.

[XXXIV-15] This survey was considered reliable. English engineers pronounced Brito 'unworthy of this great ship navigation.' Davis' Report, 6-7.

[XXXIV-16] S. Bayley in 1852 proposed a route from La Vírgen to San Juan del Sur, nearly following that of the Transit Co. without passing through the valley of the Lajas, which Baily recommended in 1843. In 1853 E. G. Squier tried to revive Belcher's plan of utilizing both lakes, and reaching Fonseca Bay through the Conejo Valley and the Estero Real. Squier's proposed Honduras railway also was to reach that bay; and it is quite possible that he contemplated connecting the two works. Felix Belly, for Belly, Millaud, and Company, in a contract of May 1858 with the Nicaraguan government, purposed carrying into execution Örsted's proposition; but after several years' waiting without Belly or his assigns, the International Canal Co., accomplishing anything, or offering better prospects for the future, the government, in 1868, declared his contract forfeited, and entered into another with Michel Chevalier, from which better expectations were entertained; but they were destined not to be realized. Chevalier required, as a condition sine qua non, that the contract should be ratified by the Costa Rican congress. This took place a year later, and then came the war between France and Prussia, and Nicaragua's last effort, like all former ones, was frustrated. Belly, Nic., i. 31-50, 170-4, 401-6; ii. 1-13, 27-36, 59-464; Id., Carte d'études, 19-27, 49-91; Nic. Canal de, 1-21; Col. Dec. y Acuerdos, 1863, 39-40, 118; 1869-70, 8-23; Pim's Gate of the Pac., 1-14, 58, 116-34, 221-30, 322-70, 394; Nic., Gaceta, Jan. 7, Apr. 8, 1865; March 20, Apr. 17, 1869; Id., Informe Sec. Rel., 1869, 8-9; Id., Id., Hacienda, 1869, 3-5; Marcoleta, Min. Nic., 1-32; Hunt's Merch. Mag., lv. 31-48; lvi. 32-4.

[XXXIV-17] Nic., Gaceta, Dec. 12, 24, 1863; Nov. 9, 1867.

[XXXIV-18] The exploration by Com. Lull, of the U. S. navy, established the existence of a practicable route for a canal with Lake Nicaragua as its summit level, 107 ft above mean tide. It was proposed to connect the lake with the Pacific by a canal 16.3 miles in length, from the mouth of the Medio River to Port Brito. The first 7.5 miles would require an excavation averaging 54 ft in depth, which would be the most costly part of the work. The plan calls for ten locks, and one tide-lock between the lake and the sea. The lake navigation is of 56 miles. The river San Juan would be improved by means of four dams; namely, at the rapids of Castillo, Balas, and Machuca, and at the mouth of the San Cárlos River, all of which places are suitable for dams. A short section of canal with one lock would be needed to get around each of the upper three dams. From the fourth dam to San Juan del Norte, an independent canal 41.4 miles long with 7 locks must be constructed, which presents no apparent engineering difficulty. The total length of the canal would be 61.7 miles. No tunnelling needed. The harbor of San Juan del Norte must be dredged, and otherwise improved, to insure that no water but that of the canal shall run into the harbor. Short breakwaters must be built to protect the entrances from the surf. Lake Nicaragua with a surface of 2,700 sq. miles, and a drainage area of 8,000 sq. miles, will supply 38 times the maximum possible demand of water. The depth of water would be 26 ft; the width at bottom 72 ft, and at surface 150 ft. The locks, 21 in number, with a lift of from 8 to 10 ft, would be 400 ft long, 72 ft wide. The cost was estimated at about eighty million dollars. U. S. Gov. Doc., Sen. Jour., 916, Cong. 41, Sess. 2; Id., H. Ex. Doc., Cong. 42, Sess. 2, i. no. 1, pt. 1, 670-8; Id., 3d Sess., i. p. 160, 462-5; Id., Sec. Navy Rept, Cong. 43, Sess. 1, p. 10-12; Id., Nic. Ship Canal Route, Cong. 43, Sess. 1; Lévy, Nic., 428-40; Nic., Gaceta, Aug. 20, 27, Oct. 22, Dec. 24, 1870; Oct. 21, 1871; Jan. 11, Feb. 22, July 12, 1873; March 21, June 6, Nov. 28, 1874; Id., Mem. Sec. Rel., 1871, 10-16, 29-39; 1875, xiii.-xiv.; 1879, xxvii.-viii.; Costa R., Col. Ley., xix. 17-34, 180-1; Id., Informe Sec. Rel., 1872, 2-5; 1877, 2; 1885, 4-6, 47-54; Guat., Mem. Sec. Rel., 1884, 6, 8, 9; Pan. Canal, March 5, 1883; Id., Star and Herald, Feb. 12, 14, 1883; La Estrella de Pan., Jan. 15, 1885; El Guatemalteco, March 4, 1884. It has been asserted that formidable obstacles exist to a permanent deep-water entrance at San Juan del Norte, owing to sand and other detritus carried into it by the San Juan River, rendering it shallow and dangerous. Gisborne's Isth. Darien, 8-11.

[XXXIV-19] The report of course gives in minute detail the engineering features of the three divisions. The proposed locks have a uniform length of 650 ft between gates, and at least 65 ft of width. The canal is to have a depth of 28 or 30 ft. It is anticipated that a ship can pass from San Juan to Brito in 30 hours. Thirty-two vessels can pass the canal in a day. Excellent materials for construction are at hand. Pan. Star and Herald, Dec. 5, 1885, and San Francisco newspapers.

[XXXIV-20] This latter objection seems to be disproved by the researches of the American engineers. But the great difficulty still remains about the establishment and future maintenance of a deep-water entrance to the canal at San Juan del Norte. Encyclop. Brit. (Am. ed.), iv. 701.

[XXXIV-21] This Isthmus was surveyed in 1520 by two Flemish engineers, who reported adversely. The king for politic reasons would not have the subject mentioned again. So it has been said. Duflot de Mofras, Explor. de l'Oregon, i. 119. The section was repeatedly explored. In 1534 preliminary work for a ship canal was done, under royal order, by Gov. Gama. The Chagres River was made navigable to where the wagon road began. Pan. Céd., in Squier's MSS., xi. 1-6; Andagoya, Carta al Rey., in Id., 8; Garella, Isth. de Pan., 3-5; Datos Biog., in Cartas de Ind., 761. Various schemes were broached in the 17th century, meeting with no encouragement. In 1687 Lionel Wafer was guided by Mandinga Indians from the gulf of San Miguel to Concepcion on the Atlantic side. W. Paterson, from his settlement at Caledonia Harbor, made several journeys into the interior, recommending it to his company for interoceanic traffic. Ulloa and Jorge Juan explored Panamá for a route in 1736. Juan and Ulloa Voy., i. 94; Fitz-Roy, in Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour., xx. 170, 178; Reichardt, Cent. Am., 164-5. A road was opened on the isth. of Darien by Gov. Ariza from Puerto Escocés to Puerto del Príncipe on the Sabana River, which enters the Pacific. Ariza, Darien, MS., 11-12; De Puydt, in Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour., xxxviii. 69; Cullen's Darien, 192-204; Pim's Gate of the Pac., 183-4; Scherzer, Cent. Am., i. 248-9. In 1820 Capt. Illingsworth of the Chilian corvette La Rosa (a) Andes had his shallop drawn across the cordillera, and launched in the Napipi, whence it proceeded to Quibdó or Citerá, near the mouth of the Atrato, where it was found in 1824 by Cochrane, who in examining Darien for a canal route found the obstacles almost insurmountable. Annales des Voy., cliii. 8, 22, 36. Domingo Lopez, a Colombian, traced a line for a canal between Panamá and Portobello. Arosemena, Apuntes Hist., 4. In 1827, C. Friend of the British navy made an excursion from the banks of the Atrato to the bay of Cupica. But the first formal exploration was made, shortly after Friend's tour, by Lloyd of Pres. Bolívar's staff, and Capt. Falmarc, a Swede in the Colombian service, under Bolívar's auspices. After completing their labors in 1829, they declared that a railway, if not a canal, was feasible between Chagres and Panamá. The notes of the expedition were published in Philosophical Trans., for 1830, and in London Geog. Soc., Jour., i. 69-101; Chevalier, Pan., 112-13; Bull. Societé Geog., xiv. 88, 53-66; Democ. Rev., vi. 297-8; Nouv. Annales des Voy., xlviii. 380-1; Garella, Isth. de Pan., 8-9.

[XXXIV-22] Thierry's canal project, 1835; Biddle's survey for a canal, 1836; Morel, soon after Lloyd's survey, in 1837-8, sought a canal route somewhat south of the line from Chagres to Pan. in the angle between the rivers Chagres and Trinidad, through Vino Tinto Lake. In a later survey he kept more to the left; Watts' explorations in 1838; Barnet's survey of Chiriquí in 1839. Niles' Reg., xlviii.; Arosemena, Exámen, 8-34; Pinart, Misc. Papers, no. 1, Decrees 113-17; Pan. Star and Herald, Oct. 4, 1882; Interoc. Canal and Monroe Doct., 23-4; Chevalier, Pan., 117-22; Barnet's Surv., in Chiriquí Imp. Co. Coll.; Pan., Gaceta Ist., Sept. 20, 1841; G. B. Watts, in Am. Geog. and Stat., Soc. Bull., i., pt. iii. 64-80.

[XXXIV-23] Garella's canal, beginning at Limon Bay, was to pass under the Ahogayegua ridge by means of a tunnel 120 ft high and 17,390 ft long, to the bay of Vaca del Monte, 12 miles west of Panamá. The route follows the Bernardino and Caimito valleys on the southern slope, and those of Quebrado and Chagres on the northern. The highest elevation 459 feet above the sea level, the mountain being tunnelled 324 feet 9 in. below its highest point; so that the canal would at the summit be 135 feet above the sea, and require 35 locks. Lloyd, acting for the British government, arrived at the same conclusions. Garella, Projet d'un canal, 11-194, 230; Nouv. Ann. des Voy., cvi. 36-40; U. S. Gov. Doc., H. Com. Rept, 145, p. 70-7, 506-71, Cong. 30, Sess. 2; Arosemena, Exámen, 5-6, 11. Hellert, in 1844-5, explored the Darien from Rio Paya to the Atrato. W. B. Liot, of the Brit. navy, proposed in 1845 a macadamized road, or a railroad from Portobello to Panamá. Capt. Kellet, being informed by Indians that the Napipi River, a tributary of the Atrato, approached very closely to the bay of Cupica, crossed on foot in 1847 till he reached a river which was supposed to flow into the Atlantic. Cullen claimed to have crossed the Darien. In 1849 he found the Sabana River, ascended it, crossed from Cañasas to the sea-shore at Port Escocés and returned. In 1850 and 1851 he crossed several times alone by different routes from the Sabana to Escocés, convinced that this must be the future route for ships. Here are the requisite secure harbors; the highest elevation of the valleys through the ridges is not over 150 feet, which is lower than any level as yet found; locks and tunnel might be avoided; the canal need be only 26 or 27 miles long, two miles through hard rock. Unfortunately, Cullen gave no notes or measurements to prove this. Capt. Fitz-Roy, of the British navy, published a memoir on a communication between the Atrato, by way of its tributary the Napipi or Naipi, and Cupica Bay. Greiff, a Swedish engineer, confirmed his observations. In 1850-1 Chevalier explored the Isthmus for information on interoceanic routes. U. S. Coast Survey, 1868, 260-7; Liot's Pan., etc., p. iii.; Seemann's Voy., i. 220; Davis' Rept, 9-14, and several maps; Cullen's Isth. Darien Ship Canal, 2d ed., 19; Annales des Voy., cliii. 23; Chevalier, in Soc. Géog. Bull., ser. iv., tom. iv., no. 19, pp. 30-70.

[XXXIV-24] The U. S. had the country surveyed in 1833-4 between the Chagres and Panamá. Fairbairn, in United Serv. Jour., 1832, pt ii. 207-9; U. S. Gov. Doc., 4 Ex. Doc. 228, vol. iv., Cong. 25, Sess. 2; Id., Id. 77, vol. iv., Cong. 28, Sess. 1; Id., U. S. Comm. Rep. 145, p. 3, 265-332, Cong. 30, Sess. 2; Pub. Treaties, 1875, p. 558; Nic., Gaceta, Nov. 18, 1848; Niles' Reg., i. 440; Tucker's Monroe Doc., 43-4.

[XXXIV-25] The parties forming the company were William H. Aspinwall, Henry Chauncey, and John L. Stephens, all of New York, who on the 15th of April, 1850, made a contract with the New Granadan government, binding themselves to construct within a given time a railway between a point on the Atlantic and Panamá, for the transportation of travellers, cattle, merchandise, etc., under a fixed tariff of rates. Certain advantages were allowed New Granadan citizens. It is not necessary to state here all the terms of the contract. It was to be in force 49 years, and the New Granadan government was to receive three per centum of the net profits. It subsequently received $10,000 a year additional on the mails. Passengers, merchandise, and everything else passing in transitu over the railroad, were to be free of duties and imposts. The contract was amended July 5, 1867. Under the new arrangement the company was to own the railway for 99 years; and pay the Colombian government one million dollars in gold, and thereafter $250,000 a year in quarterly instalments, Colombian mails passing over the road free of expense. Large grants of land were made to the company, who further bound themselves to carry the railroad to the islands of Naos, Culebra, Perico, and Flamenco, or to some other suitable place on the bay. The prolongation has never been carried out. Bidwell's Isth. Pan., 299-308, 397-417; Pan., Boletin Ofic., Nov. 15, 1867; Id., Gaceta, Oct. 31, 1880; Arosemena, Pan. Prolong. Ferrocarril, 1-18; Pan. Star and Herald, Sept. 3, Oct. 5, 1867; Sept. 12, 13, 28, 1877; Rouhaud, Régions Nouv., 1878-9, p. 343-51; Pan. Mem. Sec. Jen., 1877, 21-2.

[XXXIV-26] The difficulties of the ground and climate, together with scanty resources of the country and scarcity of labor, were overcome. The road runs on the easterly bank of the Chagres River as far as Barbacoas, where it crosses the river over a bridge 625 ft long, 18 ft broad, and 40 ft above the mean level. A full account of the construction may be found in Otis' Hist. Pan. R. R., 1-46; Thornton's Oregon and Cal., ii. 349-52; Pim's Gateway, 192-209, 415-28; Nic., Corr. Ist., May 30, June 12, 1850; De Bow's Encyc., pt ii. 493-4; Fremont's Am. Trav., 171-2, and other authorities too numerous to name here. The construction cost many lives of all nationalities, owing to the climate; and was finally completed with negroes of the Isthmus, Jamaica, the coast of Cartagena and Santa Marta. Maldonado, Asuntos Polít., MS., 6.

[XXXIV-27] Receipts from 1852 to Dec. 31, 1854, $1,026,162; 1855-60, $8,748,026; 1861-6, $12,369,662. Total, $22,143,850. Expenses to end of 1855, including share of profits paid the New Granadan govt, $1,123,081; of 1856-66, $8,748,318. Total, $9,871,399. Net proceeds, $12,272,451. The transit trade has been the main business of the Isthmus. For many years, till the Brit. steamship trade by the straits of Magellan developed, and the overland railway between Omaha and S. F. was completed, almost all merchandise going to or from Europe and the eastern ports of the United States, Cuba, etc., to California, the west coast of South America, and Central America, was sent by way of the Isthmus, including even copper from Bolivia and Chile. Receipts of the railroad 1883-4, $6,306,760. Expenses in same years, $3,979,144. Net proceeds $2,327,616; a net increase of earnings in 1884 over 1883, of $24,032. Further information in the last preceding chapter connected with the Isthmus transit trade. Bidwell's Isth. Pan., 286; Otis' Hist. Pan. R. R., 59-69; Superint. Burt's Rept, March 7, 1885, in Pan. Star and Herald, Apr. 22, 1885; La Estrella de Pan., May 2, 1885.

[XXXIV-28] Pan. Star and Herald, June 23, 1881; Sept. 18, 1882; U. S. Gov. Doc., H. Ex. Doc., Cong. 48, Sess. 1, i. pt 1, 217-19.

[XXXIV-29] Davis' Rept, 8; U. S. Gov. Doc., H. Journ., 1345, Cong. 36, Sess. 1; 541, Cong. 36, Sess. 2; Id., Sen. Doc. 1, pp. 17, 36-44, iii. pt 1, Cong. 36, Sess. 2; Harper's Mag., xxii. 193-209.

[XXXIV-30] New Granada granted, in 1852, to Fox, Cullen, and others, the privilege of opening a canal between Caledonia Bay and the gulf of San Miguel. Cullen's Darien Ship Canal, 1-146. Gisborne thought it was a mere matter of excavation costing about sixty million dollars. After having spent a great deal of time on the examination of the Atrato and San Juan rivers since 1852, F. M. Kelly, of N. Y., in 1864 explored the route from Chepo River to the gulf of San Blas, which is only 30 miles long, but calls for a tunnel. Several surveys followed; namely, Strain, of the U. S. navy, early in 1854, with a party explored the Darien. After several weeks' toil they lost themselves; five men perished, the rest reaching Yavisa on the east coast. About the same time a New Granadan expedition under Codazzi made a similar attempt, but meeting with disaster, after losing several men, gave up the enterprise. The same year English and French officers made explorations. Cullen and Gisborne were with them, and saw their former statements proved false. Next in order is Kennish's examination, followed by Michler and Cravens, of the U. S. navy, who confirmed his report in all essential points. Scherzer, Cent. Am., 250-1; Mex. Anales Min. Fomento, i. 83-8; Strain's Inter. Comm., 18-27. La Charme, in 1865, by order of the merchant Gogorza, surveyed from the south of the gulf of Darien to the gulf of San Miguel by way of the Tuyra River. De Puydt, for the International Colombia Co., reported having found a favorable route from Puerto Escondido to the Tuyra, and thence to the gulf of San Miguel. Abert's Ship Canal, 63-9, 72-9; La Charme, in Putnam's Mag., iii. 329-41; Pan., Gaceta, July 2, 1876; Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour., xxiv. 249; xxxviii. 69-99. Bourdivl, in 1864, passed from the Pacific with 25 men to the mouth of the Lara, and thence across the Isthmus to Chucunaque River, reaching it just below the Sucubti. Here the natives left him for fear of the savages, and he had to return. Rear-adm. C. H. Davis, supt of the U. S. Naval Observatory at Washington, issued a Report on Interoceanic Canals and Railways, for his government, in 1867, reviewing modern explorations of the continent from Darien to Honduras for canals and railroad routes, and giving maps thereof, and a list of authorities thereon. His work is quite thorough to its date. Davis' Rept, 15-19. The secretary of the U. S. navy thus summarized in 1873 the report of Com. Selfridge, who, in 1870-2, made a thorough exploration of several lines in the narrower portion of Darien. This route includes 100 miles of navigation of the Atrato River, which is capable of being navigated by the largest steamers. Between the Atrato and the Pacific, a canal must be made of 28 miles in length, of which it would pass 22 through a plain with a gradual rise of 90 feet. Of the other 6 three would be in moderate cutting, the other three would be of tunnelling. The estimated cost was between $52,000,000 and $63,000,000, and the time for completing the work ten years. The tunnel would be 112 ft high, 60 feet wide, and have 87 ft of clear headway above the surface of the water. The canal would have 25 ft in depth, 50 ft of width at the bottom, and 70 at surface. The locks, 20 in number, were to be 427 ft long, 54 ft wide, with a lift of 10 ft. The water supply, much in excess of the requirement, would be derived from the Napipi River. Two alternative schemes were also presented, increasing the length of tunnelling, and diminishing the number of locks, at an estimated cost of $85,000,000 to $90,000,000. He proved De Puydt's line impracticable. Selfridge's full report, with maps and illustrations, etc., in U. S. Gov. Doc., Darien Explor., Cong. 42, Sess. 3; Brief reports by sec. of the navy and Selfridge, in Id., H. Ex. Doc., i. p. 3 (sec. of navy), vol. iii., pp. 9-10, 133-41, Cong. 41, Sess. 3; Harper's Mag., xlvii. (Nov. 1873), 801-20; Encyclop. Brit. (Am. ed.), iv. 700-1. In 1873 Selfridge surveyed the valley of the Bojaya, another tributary of the Atrato, more to the north, which was regarded as more favorable. The Am. govt despatched two other expeditions in 1874, one of which surveyed a line between the Atrato and the Pacific across the state of Cauca; the other a line parallel with the Panamá railway.

[XXXIV-31] It affords a much shorter route than that of Darien, and the cordillera is there less than 290 ft high. The watershed being nearer the Pacific than the Atlantic, the streams running into the former ocean are of little importance, whereas the Chagres on the Atlantic slope, with its tributary, the Obispo, forms a navigable channel, which in the rainy season attains to formidable proportions.

[XXXIV-32] A copy of the contract and grant appears in Bogotá, Diario Ofic., May 22, 1878; an English translation in U. S. Gov. Doc., H. Ex. Doc., Cong. 46, Sess. 2, i. pt i. 243. Under the contract the Colombian govt will receive at certain periods of it from 6 to 8 per cent of the net receipts; but its share is never to be under $250,000 a year.

[XXXIV-33] The U. S. govt tried to secure by treaty with Colombia the right to establish forts, arsenals, and naval stations on the Isthmus, though no forces were to be kept there in time of peace. A protocol was signed in New York by representatives of both governments in Feb. 1881, to amend the treaty of 1846, but failed of ratification at Bogotá. Diario de Cundinamarca, Apr. 28, 1881; Pan. Star and Herald, May 20, 24, June 24, 25, 1881.

[XXXIV-34] De Lesseps, Wyse, and other officials of the canal, received the highest marks of regard from the people of the Isthmus. Pan. Ley., years 1879-80, 9-11, 30; Id., Gaceta, Feb. 1, 12, 19, 22, 1880; Jan. 27, Feb. 13, 17, 1881. The company at once made provision for a health service, in spacious and well-regulated hospitals, etc. Companyo, Projet d'organiz. du serv. de santé, 1-137, and a map.

[XXXIV-35] The bottom throughout its length, 8½ metres below the mean level of both oceans; width, 22 metres at bottom, 50 metres at top; except through the Culebra ridge, where the depth will be 9 metres, with the width of 24 metres at bottom and 28 metres at top. It must be observed that the levels of the two oceans are not alike at all times; at Colon the difference in the tides never exceeds 23 inches, whereas in Panamá it is usually 13 ft, and at times nearly 20. This must produce a current in the canal sufficient to impede navigation for several hours at each tide. The great difficulties to overcome are the mountain and the river Chagres. The company contemplated at first to tunnel the mountain, but gave up the plan, and resolved to cut down through the solid strata—fortunately soft and otherwise easy—for a depth of between 300 and 400 ft over a long distance. The next task—by far the most difficult one—is to deal with the eccentricities of the Chagres, which discharges at Matachin a volume of water averaging 100 cubic metres per second, which at low water may sink to 15 or 20 cubic metres, and at flood rise to 500 or 600. Several plans have been contemplated, one of which was to construct an enormous dam at Gamboa, between the Obispo and Santa Cruz hills, 960 metres at the base, 1,960 at the top, with a width at bottom, of 1,000 metres, and a height of 45 metres. But it is understood that the engineers have finally concluded to make no use of the waters of the Chagres, but to change their course and let them run to the ocean through the desert; this will be left to the last. Moreover, locks will be built to control the tides. De Lesseps, confident that the canal will be finished in 1889, says there will be no time in the interval to construct the locks; that they can be made later. The chief point being that shipping shall pass through the canal. See Bulletin du Canal Océanique, issued since 1879; Engineering, 1883-4; Reclus, Explor., in Tour du Monde, for a series of views; Sullivan's Problem of Interoc. Communic., Washington, 1883; Ammen's Interoc. Ship Canal, Phila., 1880; N. Y. Herald, Feb. 6, 1882; Encyclop. Brit. (Am. ed., 1885), xviii. 213.

[XXXIV-36] It is estimated that the excavation of the canal proper demands the removal of about 122,000,000 metres, and up to Jan. 31, 1886, only 15,000,000 metres had been done, at an expense of $30,000,000.

[XXXIV-37] Charles D. Jameson, a member of the Boston Society of Civil Engineers, thinks there is no insurmountable obstacle. The following newspapers contain information on the canal's affairs. Pan. Canal, July 12, 1881; Id., Star and Herald, July 20, 1881; July 11, Nov. 10, 1882; and in almost every issue till 1886 inclusive. La Estrella de Pan., July 31, 1884; S. F. Bulletin; Id., Alta Cal.; Id., Morning Call; Id., Chronicle; and every other published on the Pacific coast, as well as in the whole United States; Mex. Financier, July 5, 1884; Correoso's Statement, MS., 9-11.

[XXXIV-38] To raise the original capital the liabilities of the company became $150,000,000, which at 4 per cent equals $6,000,000 annual interest. If ships crossing the canal be charged $3 per ton, $5,780,000 will be yearly required to pay the interest. S. F. Call, Nov. 9, 1886. De Lesseps reckoned the monthly output of excavation, which in 1885 was 658,000 metres and in 1886 1,079,000, should reach 2,000,000 metres a month in 1887, and 3,000,000 metres a month in 1888, and up to the completion of the work in 1889. Pan. Star and Herald, Aug. 5, 7, 11, 12, 1886.

[XXXIV-39] It is well to say in this connection that tramways have also been built in the capital, under the auspices of the govt. It was also planned to have another from the department of Sacatepequez, to run from the town of Ciudad Vieja, through Antigua Guatemala, to the town of Pastores.

[XXXIV-40] Guat., Mem. Sec. Fomento, for years 1880-5; Id., Sec. Rel., year 1884; Id., El Guatemalteco (official), March 4, May 10, 22, Oct. 12, 1884; July 19, 1885; Batres' Sketch Book, 8-10, 43; _Pan. Star and Herald_, Nov. 24, Dec. 16, 1882; March 8, 1884; Id., Canal, Jan. 17, 1883.

[XXXIV-41] Aniñon, Discurso, Izaguirre, Relacion, Duarte, Relacion, and Criado de Castilla, Descub., all in Squier's MSS., v., vii., viii., and xvii., respectively.

[XXXIV-42] Loans were raised in Europe for the purpose, the particulars of which are given in connection with Honduran finances.

[XXXIV-43] For further information, see Squier's Cent. Am., 74-9, 680, 729-30, 756-9; Id., Hond., 207-16, 225-35; Id., Hond. Interoc. Railway, 1-102; Reichardt, Nic., 284-6; Wells' Hond., 130-1; Fitz-Roy's Rept Railway; Guat., Gaceta, Jan. 27, 1854; Hond., Gaceta Ofic., May 10, 1854; Costa R., Gaceta, March 4 to Oct. 21, 1854, passim; Nic., Gaceta, July 25, Nov. 21, 1868; March 20, Nov. 13, 1869; Feb. 19, 1870; Feb. 11, Aug. 19, 1871; Id., El Porvenir, Oct. 1, 1871; U. S. Gov. Doc., H. Ex. Doc., Cong. 42, Sess. 3, i. 306; Nic., Semanal Nic., May 15, 1873; Am. Cyclop., viii. 790; Froebel's Cent. Am., 189-90; Belly, Nic., ii. 22-7; Pim's Gate of the Pac., 313-21; Laferrière, De Paris à Guat., 101-6; _Pan. Star and Herald_, March 23, Oct. 4, 1883; March 20, 1886; Id., Canal, March 28, 1883; Mex. Financier, Dec. 8, 1883.

[XXXIV-44] Nic., Mem. Min. Hac., 1883, pp. vii.-viii.; Presid. Cardenas, Mensaje, Jan. 15, 1885, in Costa R., Gaceta Ofic., Feb. 4, 1885.

[XXXIV-45] The termination of the Atlantic and other lines depends on the arrangement of the republic's foreign indebtedness. The cost of the three sections was $12,239,296; and in 1883 they were valued at $6,600,000. Costa R., Mem. Sec. Hacienda, 1883, Table no. 10; Annexes 8 and 9; 1884, 152-3, 287; Id., Id., Fomento, 1883, 1-4; 1884, 29-30; Pan. Star and Herald, Dec. 8, 1883; July 23, Oct. 24, 1885; Costa R., Gaceta, May 16, Aug. 12, Sept. 1-27, 1885.

[XXXIV-46] For particulars, see Costa R., _Informe Sec. Gobern._, years 1873-4; Id., Id., Obras Púb., 1879-80; Id., Id., Hac., 1880, 1883; Id., Id., Fomento, 1883; Id., Col. Ley., 1880, 85-9; 1881, 55-9; Nic., Semanal Nic., Jan. 15, 1884; Salv., Diario Ofic., Aug. 18, Sept. 12, 1878; Id., Gaceta Ofic., Aug. 12, 1876; Jan. 9, Feb. 22, June 29, 30, 1877; Apr. 19 to Nov. 13, 1879, passim; Nic., Mem. Sec. Hac., 1883; Id., Id., Gobern., 1883; Id., Id., Interior, 1883; Guat., Recop. Ley., Gob. Democ., ii. 81; Id., _Mem. Sec. Fomento_, years 1880-5; Id., Presupuesto Gen., 19-29.

[XXXIV-47] Eardley-Wilmot's Our Journal, 69; Colombia, Diario Ofic., Feb. 26, Sept. 10, 1874; Pan., Gaceta, Jan. 11, Aug. 12, 1880. The connection at La Libertad was established on the 1st of Oct., 1882. U. S. Gov. Doc., H. Ex. Doc., For. Rel., Cong. 47, Sess. 2, i. 51-4.

Scattered through this third volume have been given bibliographical notices of about twenty of the chief works consulted in its preparation. I have now to add a few others deserving of special mention. The Gospel in Central America was written by Frederick Crowe, an Englishman, and a Baptist preacher, who resided some time in Central America in the interest of his church. The book—a 12mo of 588 pages, published in London, 1850—contains, as its title implies, a sketch of the country, including British Honduras, physical and geographical, historical and political, moral and religious. The author did his task as well as circumstances permitted, in view of the fact that at his violent deportation much of the material he had gathered was left behind and never recovered. At all events, it afforded much which till then was little known of that country. The statements contained therein not original are credited to the sources from which they were taken; for events after the declaration of independence the author relied on the book of travels by Robert C. Dunlop, from which I have also culled some important facts. Centro-Amerika, and Nicaragua, both written in German by the traveller C. F. Reichardt, and published in Braunschweig, in 8vo form, respectively in 1851 and 1854; the former being of 256, and the latter of 296 pages, one and the other provided with maps. The two works contain valuable data, entitled to credit. Aus Amerika, by Julius Fröbel, issued in 1855 at Leipzig, and Geographie und Statestif von Mexico und Centralamerika, by J. G. Wappäus, published at Leipzig in 1863, have also afforded much useful knowledge. In writing this chapter on interoceanic communication, I am indebted to the Cabinet Cyclopædia, directed by Dionysius Lardner, and to John Richardson's Polar Regions, the first-named giving in its first three volumes all that was known to 1830-1, on the geography of the ancients and middle ages, and on modern voyages and discoveries. The latter narrates the voyages made to discover the north-west passage, furnishing likewise a view of the physical geography and ethnology of the polar regions north and south; the whole subject, though treated in a summary way, brings it out quite comprehensively. The Report on Interoceanic Canals and Railroads, between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans—an 8vo of 37 pages with numerous maps printed in Washington, 1867—by Charles H. Davis, superintendent of the U. S. Naval Observatory, contains all that was known on the subject to the time of its publication. The Encyclopædia Britannica—American edition, issued, 1875-86, at Philadelphia—has also afforded valuable data on the voyages in the polar seas, and on explorations and surveys connected with canal matters. None of those works, however, nor the numerous others consulted, have furnished the required information from the beginning of the 19th century to the present time; and those of later years do not usually, to any extent, go back to early ones, or if they do, it is only to give some meagre information.

But my researches have not been confined to books. Aside from the important facts obtained directly from the lips of intelligent natives and other persons conversant with Central American and Panamanian affairs, I have had before me presidential messages, reports of ministers and other officials of the several states, U. S. govt reports, official journals, statements of explorers and surveyors, cyclopædias, magazines, reviews, and a host of newspapers of different countries and in various languages, among which special credit should be given to the Star and Herald of Panamá for an ever well-informed and reliable gatherer and transmitter of news to and from the countries on both oceans over this bridge of the nations. Important data, wheresoever found, have been brought into requisition.

[XXXIV-48] 'Mr. Hopkins,' says Capt Fitzroy, p. 23, 'was lately prevented by the Indians from ascending the Chepo River toward Mandinga or San Blas Bay; Mr Wheelwright was also stopped there in 1837; and Dr Cullen was likewise stopped by the aborigines while endeavoring to ascend the Paya River, that runs from near the mouths of the Atrato to the Tuyra, which falls into the gulf of San Miguel.'

I learned in Darien that Mr Hopkins and Don Pepe Hurtado, a Granadian engineer, made a present of a scarlet military coat to an Indian on the Chepo, and that as soon as the Indian chief of the district learned it, he flogged the Indian who accepted the present, and summoned his people to arms, and Mr H. and Don Pepe had to fly for their lives. Most probably the chief looked upon the acceptance of gaudy trappings as an acknowledgment of submission to foreigners. I have mentioned elsewhere my having learned subsequently that the reason of the Indians having stopped me was the fear of small-pox being introduced amongst them rather than any dislike to foreigners.

[XXXIV-49] This I attribute to the jealousy of the Spaniards, who were careful to withhold any information that might lead the English to the discovery of an easy communication between the two seas. Alcedo, in his Diccionario Histórico de las Indias Occidentales, says that it was interdicted, on pain of death, even to propose opening the navigation between the two seas. 'En tiempo de Felipe II. se proyectó cortarlo, y comunicar los dos mares por medio de un canal, y á este efecto se enviaron para reconocerlo dos Ingenieros Flamencos, pero encontraron dificultades insuperables, y el consejo de Indias representò los perjuicios que de ello se seguirían á la monarquia, por cuya razon mandò aquel Monarca que nadie propusièse ó tratase de ello en adelante, pena de la vida.' The navigation of the Atrato also was interdicted, on pain of death.

[XXXIV-50] In its upper course, as it is navigable for large vessels nearly to Príncipe.

[XXXIV-51] 'It is ascertained,' says Captain Fitzroy, 'that there is only a trifling difference between the levels of the ocean at this Isthmus. A rise of tide not exceeding two feet is found on the Atlantic side, while in Panama Bay the tide rises more than eighteen feet; the mean level of the Pacific in this particular place being two or three feet above that of the Atlantic. It is high water at the same hour in each ocean.'

Colonel Lloyd says that the Pacific at high water is thirteen feet higher than the Atlantic, while the Atlantic is highest at low water by six feet. Baron Humboldt said, in 1809: 'The difference of level between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean does not, probably, exceed nine feet; and at different hours in the day, sometimes one sea, sometimes the other, is the more elevated.' But this difference would be no hindrance, but, on the contrary, a most important advantage in a ship-canal, since it would create a current from the Atlantic to the Pacific during the ebb, and one from the Pacific to the Atlantic during the flood-tide of the Pacific, and these alternate currents would enable each of the fleets to pass through at different times, those bound from the Atlantic to the Pacific during the ebb-tide of the latter, and those from the Pacific to the Atlantic during the flood-tide of the former. This arrangement in the periods of transit would afford many advantages, such as obviating the meeting of the vessels, and the necessity of their passing one another, and preventing their accumulation or crowding together in the canal, as each fleet could be carried right through in one tide, if not by the current alone, at least with the aid of tug steamers. The alternation of the currents would have the further beneficial effect of washing out the bed of the canal, and keeping it free from the deposition of sand or mud, so that dredging would never become necessary; and would also render the degree of width necessary for the canal less; though I do not reckon this to be a point of moment, as the wider and deeper it is cut the better, and the work once finished will last to the end of the world, since the natural effect of the alternate currents will be a gradual process of deepening and widening, which will convert the canal into a strait.

[XXXIV-52] And subsequent months, in a controversy with Evan Hopkins, Esq., C. E. & M. E.

[XXXIV-53] Narrative of an Official Visit to Guatemala, by G. A. Thompson. London, 1829, p. 512.

[XXXIV-54] March 13, 1788.

[XXXIV-55] Masthead angles were taken in Córdova's voyage, 1785-6.

[XXXIV-56] Four hundred.

[XXXIV-57] Five leagues from the shore. Sp. MS.

[XXXIV-58] The arms of Santa Maria de la Antigua were a golden castle between a jaguar and a puma.

[XXXIV-59] Squier's Nicaragua, vol. i. p. 195.

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